


Cadet Starkling

by HopeLions13



Series: Starkling [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Daisy is growing up in this one, It's perfect, SHIELD Academy, daisy goes to the academy, daisy is tony's daughter, daisy stark, it's good fun, just read it, set during Thor and the years between that and Avengers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-06 15:12:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 32
Words: 41,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5421728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeLions13/pseuds/HopeLions13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daisy Stark has finally gotten use to life as Iron Man's daughter, but now it's time to be someone else. She can't remain under his shadow forever. After a trial consultation that involves Thor, Daisy goes to the Shield Communications Academy. There she meets a few new friends, (and enemies), does a few brilliant things (and some dumb ones) and becomes the woman, and agent, the world needs her to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Natasha didn't end up going with Daisy to New Mexico, so when the helicopter landed Daisy was alone and unsure. She figured finding Coulson was probably her best bet, and considering the helicopter took her inside the perimeter of some sort of temporary base, the best way to find him was probably to walk in.

"You shouldn't be here kid."

Daisy turned, relieved to see someone. She suspected there were scientists all about, studying whatever this base had sprung up around, but Daisy had been wandering around for ten minutes trying to find Coulson. "Sorry, not sure where here is… um have you seen Agent Coulson?"

The man slung his bow across his back, but still looked at Daisy wearily. He must have figured that even without his bow he could take her down in a fight, and if he fought anything like Natasha, Daisy was sure he could. "How do you know Coulson?"

"It's a long story," Daisy sighed not wanting to get into it. "Look, can you please help me? Natasha said just get on the helicopter and get off when it lands. I think it's probably part of the test, but I honestly have no idea what to do. So do you know where Coulson is?"

"Oh," the man sighed smiling slightly. "You could have just started with your name, I knew I recognized you from somewhere. You're Daisy, right?" She nodded. Finally they were getting somewhere. "I heard that they were calling you down. I'm Agent Clint Barton, Nat may have mentioned me."

Daisy nodded, "She told me, and I have no idea why mind you, but she's scary so I'm going to do as she asks." Clint laughed at that, and Daisy took that as encouragement to carry on. "She told me to tell you that I thought 'hawkgirl' was a good name for a superhero."

Clint scowled and ranted as he led her down the halls. "Why must every code name identify the gender? Oh I'm hawkguy and I'm so cool. Oh it's ridiculous. I am not a hawk, my eyes are a hawk, so I'm Hawkeye. Does she see me criticizing her name? No! But it's 'Hawkguy this" and "Hawkguy" that. It's infuriating."

"In the future, if Romanoff tells you to tell someone something, don't," Coulson, who must have heard the end of the rant as they entered the main area, advised Daisy. "Especially if you're telling it to Barton."

Daisy couldn't help but smile, that was her first lesson as a spy. "Duly noted. So where are these computers you need hacking?"

Coulson gave her an odd look. "Who told you there were any computers needing hacking?"

"Natasha, she said that was why I was here."

"I thought you were here to design a program to figure out how to lift this hammer."

Now that he mentioned it, Daisy realized the whole base was centered around some hammer that all the scientists were studying. "I mean I can do that, probably, but Natasha didn't mention it."

"Well do that then," Coulson suggested with a shrug and a concerned look on his face. "I'll ask Fury what he's up to later, for now I have to go and talk with our little intruder from last night."

Daisy didn't even ask what that was about, but instead set down on the computer compiling the data into a program that would hopefully explain how to move the hammer.

"So, you're Tony Stark's daughter," Clint, who apparently didn't have anything better to do, mused. "Does he ever let you into the suit?"

Why did people seem to think he would? "Nope." She probably should be quiet, mild mannered, it was a test to see if she could be an agent after all, but Daisy couldn't resist. "So your superhero name is Hawkeye? Let me guess, your eyesight is really good?"

"Hey, it's no less obvious than Iron Man."

Daisy laughed at the validity of his statement; her dad was never one for subtlety. "No, it's cool, you're the first person I've met with actual superpowers. Dad just has his suit and Natasha is just naturally scary."

"It's not natural," Clint admitted. Daisy's fingers kept typing, but she was listening far more intently after that. "She doesn't have powers, as far as I know, but she's molded. She's just a ballerina at heart."

Daisy could see Natasha doing Russian ballet, but ballet dancers weren't weak and fragile. No, they were strong, dedicated, and used to pain. "You know her pretty well?"

"As well as anyone," he admitted, sounding resigned to the enigma of Natasha Romanoff. "Better than anyone I guess. I was the first person to offer her a place at S.H.I.E.L.D. For better or worse everyone has a special bond with the one who recruited them."

Clint recruited Natasha, and Natasha recruited Daisy. That was most certainly not lost on the girl. "Who's this intruder Coulson was talking about?"

"Some guy who thought he could pick up the hammer. I actually thought he was going to do it but no luck. No one is worthy to lift the hammer."

Worthy… "Why did you use that word?"

"Oh, it's inscribed on the hammer in Nordic runes or whatever. That's what one of the linguists said at least, I know a lot of languages, but I'm not a Viking."

"So it's like the legends of Thor," Daisy noted thinking of a story she'd heard as a child. "Only he could lift the hammer because only he was worthy."

Clint laughed at the thought, and Daisy admitted it was kind of ridiculous. "So we have the Norse god of Thunder locked up, good to know."

"Well obviously he's not Thor," Daisy reminded with a grin. She liked Clint. "He couldn't lift the hammer remember. I'm just saying my dad flies around in a metal suit; gods aren't that big of a stretch."

"Daisy," Coulson called from around the corner. "I want you to come and talk to him. He looks like the guy who can't resist a pretty face."

Daisy sighed, set up the program run itself, and stood. "Duty calls."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Hey," Daisy chimed, entering the room, and startling the man. "Who were you talking to, the voices in your head?"

The man looked at Daisy, probably wondering why someone as young as her was here. Daisy found herself ogling the specimen of a man. She'd joked with Clint that he was Thor but honestly this man did look like a god. "Who are you, where is the son of Coul?"

She wondered if she should be giving a fake name, but realized Coulson must have given his own. "You mean Coulson? He left to do something, I don't know he told me to come in and talk to you. I'm Daisy… why do you look upset?"

"I just received news of my father's passing." Even the man seemed surprised to have answered Daisy's question, and he looked at her curiously.

"I'm sorry," Daisy replied, and she truly meant it. A few days ago she thought her own dad was going to die, and who knew what she would have done if he had. "Was your pain over that why you broke in to steal the hammer?"

The man shook his beautiful blond locks. "No, I did not know at the time. I came to claim the hammer as it is my property."

"Your property that you can't even lift."

"I can lift it!" the man cried slamming his hand against the table. Daisy heard shuffling outside, but prayed they didn't try to come and save her. She was fine… he wasn't mad at her. "It is mine, I should be able to lift her."

Daisy scanned her mind for the stories, and came across a name. "Lift her, you mean Mjolnir? That's her name right? And you're Thor?" It was a big leap, but Daisy just had a feeling she was right. The man looked shocked as well. "I'm smart, but am I right?"

"Yes, how do you know of me?"

"The Vikings believed you to be a god," Daisy answered with a shrug as she stood. "I've read their legends. But why can't you lift the hammer? All the stories say she is yours."

"Thor" looked like he was completely reassessing Daisy. "I remember the Viking people, Loki and I used to play tricks on them when we were young."

Loki, Daisy remembered him. Or well she remembered that he had a horse for a child and was its mother. "So all the stories are true? You're really the god Thor?"

"Your people call me god, but where I am from all people possess such powers."

Daisy smiled and nodded, "Asgard you mean? Why are you here, on Midgard?" She was wicked impressed with how much she remembered from a stupid book she read as a kid. "Does it have something to do with why you can't lift the hammer?"

'Thor' didn't get a chance to answer though, because Coulson opened the door. "Daisy, what the Hell are you doing in here?" he cried. She sat confused for a second, but figured it was in her best interest to just go with it.

"It was nice meeting you, even if it means my dad is going to kill me," Daisy told the man with a smile that didn't disappear until he was out of sight. "Well he's batty."

"I was starting to think you believed him," Coulson seemed relieved to know she hadn't gone insane. "Do you actually think he believes that crap?"

He could just be a spy. Natasha was a pretty damn good liar. And yet Daisy's instincts told him that whether or not it was true he believed it to be true. "Truth doesn't matter I don't think you're getting any other story from him."

"Luckily he has a friend here who might be able to help," Coulson sighed and Daisy felt bad for him. He went from babysitting her father to this; the poor guy. "You and I are going to follow him, you know a nice Father-daughter outing."

So Coulson approved of her spur-of-the-moment lie. Good, that meant she was a natural at it. "Sure Pops, whatever you say."

Clint stood a little ways away, holding back a laugh, and Daisy flashed him an amused smile. She liked these Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. They certainly weren't the devil's creation her dad liked to think of them as.

Daisy and Coulson followed Selvig and 'Thor' to a bar, but found them doing nothing more interesting than taking shots. Oh sure, he carried on telling the man he was Thor and everything, but no other story presented itself. The undercover Op revealed absolutely nothing.

Except how funny Coulson could be. "So you're telling me that you and a bunch of genius future spies just thought that your professors, who was a spy, wouldn't notice his grading sheet suddenly had pink ink?"

"Give it five years and then tell me you and your friends never did anything stupid at the Academy," Coulson grinned sipping from his straw eloquently.

Daisy sighed, and took another bite of her burger. "That's if I get to go."

"This is just a formality," Coulson promised even though he was as confused as she was. Coms cadets didn't need PhDs usually, only Sci-tech. It was odd that they'd told Daisy otherwise. "I'm the one signing off on you, and if I thought it was a bad idea I would have told Fury so from the beginning."

Daisy couldn't help but wonder how long they'd been talking about this. The events of the last week went by so fast, surely it had been during that time, right? But what had she done to prove herself to Coulson? Sure, she'd shown Natasha her exceptional computer skills, but Coulson was gone by that point. As far as Daisy remembered Coulson had only seen her 'cowering and helpless' phase, and yet he believed in her. It was odd.

"Honestly it's my dad I'm worried about more than anything," Daisy answered with a sigh. Perhaps it was a bad idea to be confiding in her kinda-sorta boss, but she liked Coulson. She had since they first met. "I don't even know where he thinks I am right now, but I know he's going to be pissed when I tell him the truth. He'll forbid me from going, and I'm pretty sure Fury would rather not have me as an Agent than lose the good will between S.H.I.E.L.D and Iron Man."

Coulson didn't object to the last point, but he seemed concerned by her negativity. "Why would he forbid you? What's wrong with S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"He just doesn't like it I guess… And Fury mentioned Howard having a role in its creation which should have helped but clearly didn't because my dad doesn't really like his dad and…" She shook her head. They were on a mission; she didn't need to ramble. "Whatever it doesn't matter. I'm just going to enjoy the one Op I'm getting and resign myself to begging my dad for a chance to save the world."

"You'll have your chance," Coulson promised. He could see the hero in Daisy; she just needed to see it herself. "If I know anything I know that."

"And I know our target is leaving the bar very drunk," Daisy smiled nodding her head towards the door. "So we should probably follow."

Coulson however didn't move. "I doubt we're going to get anything better following them. Let's get back to the base and get some sleep… before you do so I want you to pull all the old Viking drawings of Thor and compare them to ours."

"I thought you thought it was a crazy impossibility."

"Most definitely," Coulson smiled paying the bill. (Daisy wanted to object that she had way more money, but didn't want to insult him.) "But like you said to Barton, your dad flies around in a metal suit. The crazy impossibilities are what this job is founded on. So run the faces, no harm can come from it."

No, no harm could come from it, and if just maybe it was true… well Daisy couldn't imagine what that might mean.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's short, but I plan on updating again later so that makes up for it.

Chapter 3

Some of the images looked enough like their guy that Daisy could imagine it, but many didn't. The problem was that the Vikings couldn't seem to agree on what Thor looked like, so their images weren't much help.

Still it didn't really matter that much the next morning, because some proof is irrefutable. When a giant rainbow bridge showed up in the sky and four super-strong warriors came through town looking for Thor the impossible was suddenly the norm.

"I think I'm adding Daisy to the list of people whose instinct I trust," Clint muttered as they tried to catch up with the warriors. "But gods? How can those be real?"

Daisy shrugged struggling to keep up with the surprisingly long legged agents. "Primitive people considered anything out of their understanding magical. It's possible they're just powered people the Vikings thought were gods."

"But that was thousands of years ago, how are they still alive if they're not immortal?"

Daisy didn't have an answer for that one. Powers could do a lot, but make you live thousands of years? That was a bit of a stretch, even for Daisy's broad mind.

"Daisy," Clint turned to the girl. "Your father doesn't happen to have a giant metal suit even bigger than Iron Man that spits fire and has 'bendy metal'?"

She had absolutely no idea what Clint was talking about, but that was answer enough. "If you have a giant armored suit and it doesn't look like Iron Man than it's not my dad unless he's been really bored in the day I've been gone." She looked towards where the rainbow hit and while she couldn't see like Clint could, Daisy suspected that was where the problem was. "Is that Coulson? Tell him I can probably shut the robot down if I can get close enough."

Clint, apparently deeming it necessary, hijacked the closest car, and drove them back towards the site. "How do you plan on doing that unless it's connected to some computer?"

"This little box," Daisy admitted pulling off the pendant she'd been wearing the whole time. "My dad gave it to me after what happened. Basically it hacks into any suit and uploads the control into J.A.R.V.I.S's mainframe. I can take it from there."

"But what if this stuff was really designed by gods? Then it would be magic."

Daisy didn't believe in magic. Daisy believed in science not yet understood by mankind. "I can do it. I just have to get close enough to plant it."

The end up having to turn around again because the Destroyer is fast, and by the time they show up half the town was destroyed. (Hence the robot's name). Daisy didn't stop to consider how untrained she was, how young she was or how dead she could be. The moment she had the robot in sight, Daisy flung herself from the car, rolled, and joined in. Thor and his friends seemed to be doing a better job of fighting it than the very human S.H.I.E.L.D agents, but even they were struggling. It was a good distraction though, and when the destroyer pinned Thor to the ground Daisy managed to get the chip on. Immediately she pulled out her phone and turned the suit off, and it was dormant even before the frigging hammer blew right through it.

"You saved my life, flower of Midgard." Daisy found herself blushing at the name. It was so ridiculous it was cute. "I am in your debt."

She had a god in her debt, now that was cool. "You looked like you were going to take care of it yourself just fine," Daisy smiled back at the literal god. "But tell me, is Asgard actually a different realm or like a different planet. Are you just an alien?"

Thor smiled, but he didn't reply. Instead he turned to Coulson. "Son of Coul, you and I fight for the same cause, the protection of this world. From this day forward, count me as your ally… if you return the items you stole from Jane Foster."

Coulson promised he would, right before Thor pulled Jane in for a tight kiss. "I shall see you again Jane, Son of Coul, Flower of Midgard. For now I must return to my own home to save my own people."

Daisy stood in awe as the rainbow appeared again taking the Asgardians with it. Once they were gone though, she kicked the broken Destroyer. "I'm going with aliens. Which means this is alien tech and property of S.H.I.E.L.D, not something I'm going to have to tell my father about."

"You can tell him," Coulson promised looking at the mess around him and sighing. "After you tell him you're to attend the S.H.I.E.L.D Academy no matter what. Iron Man is good, but you are more valuable to S.H.I.E.L.D. I'm sure of it."

Daisy blushed, but covered it well. "Whatever you say, AC. Now we should probably start cleaning up. I'll start deleting video footage if you take care of the giant robot body?"

"That sounds like a plan to me."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promised a second chapter today, so enjoy. Don't hate me!

I promised a second update after all. So here it is. I promised myself I wouldn't post it until I got all my work done. I gave up on my precalc project after hour 4. I have until Monday and am 2/5th done, so I'm not in terrible shape. That only makes it like a 16 hour project. (Don't do math kids.) Anyway, enough of my rambling, you all want to see Tony's reaction. Hope you like it, if it wasn't what you expected.

Chapter 27

It didn't take long to wipe every trace of Thor off the internet, so Daisy was home by that night. It had definitely been the weirdest two days of her life, but Daisy knew she couldn't just go to sleep. Nope, she had to explain to Tony about the Academy, and probably get disowned.

"Welcome home Daisy," J.A.R.V.I.S greeted as she walked through the door. "Your father wishes to see you immediately in his workshop. I will warn you he is displeased by this impromptu road trip." So that was what Natasha had told him she was up to. Great, no wonder he was mad. Knowing that procrastination would get her in even more trouble, Daisy pulled on her big girl panties and went to face the music.

The music, apparently, was Ac/Dc's 'Highway to Hell', and Daisy found it awfully fitting. She felt like she was walking to Hell as she went to make her father hate her.

He was working on his suit, of course, and didn't speak at first. Daisy watched him thinking of all the times she'd just sat there, watching him tinker. She already felt different from the girl who'd done that. She already felt older. "I didn't go on a road trip, or whatever they told you."

Tony didn't look up, but just spoke as he worked. "I figured when it was Agent Romanoff telling me. She can only get so many lies past me in the span of a week." Daisy suspected Natasha could have made him believe if she wanted to, but that Nat knew it wouldn't really be much help at all.

"I was in New Mexico… with Agent Coulson. They asked me to go down and help with a situation… apparently there are aliens, who the Vikings regarded as gods…"

"Fun."

"Yeah…"

"Why you?" It was a fair question for Tony to ask. If they had an issue with aliens shouldn't they have called Iron Man before his daughter? It would have made sense.

"They offered me a place at the S.H.I.E.L.D Academy if I went." There she said it. The words were out there and they weren't coming back. "So I did." Tony nodded still not looking at his daughter. "So are you going to yell at me? Tell me I can't go? What?" It wasn't like her dad to hold his tongue with anything, especially not something like this.

Tony finally put down whatever he was working on and faced his daughter. "Would you like me to yell at you and say you can't go?" Daisy shook her head; of course she didn't want to be yelled at. "Fine then, I won't."

Daisy couldn't believe her ears. "What?"

"Look, I'd make you hate me if I thought it would stop you from going, but it won't. At least if we're still talking I might be able to protect you. I'm not going to lose you over something that you will never change your mind on. Agent mentioned the Academy to Pepper, she thought that was where you'd gone. I wanted to kill you at first, but then I realized that my father trying to make me him was what I hated the most. I won't be my father. If I can't be better I can at least try not to make his same mistakes. I'm not going to tell you to go to the Academy. This is me right now begging you not to. Nothing I say though will stop you, you get that from me, and I'm not going to just let you think you're not accountable to anyone, because you'll always be accountable to me."

Daisy physically rubbed her ears to make sure she'd heard him right. He was giving her permission? Well, not permission per say but not forbidding it?

"You will never change your mind, right? I didn't just accidentally talk you into something you weren't sure about?"

He knew his daughter well. "No, I am so tired of sitting back and watching you and the world be threatened. I could do something about it as a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. Coulson saved Pepper and my lives back in September! Hell, them pushing you is the only reason the Palladium in your chest hasn't killed you already! S.H.I.E.L.D is full of good people who just want to protect the world. I want to help them."

"Would giving you a suit stop you?"

Daisy thought about that one for a second. He was being entirely theoretical of course, she doubted that he'd agree even if she said yes, but still. She could go be Iron Girl, save people like that.

And yet the world already had Iron Man. It already had someone flying around in a metal suit scaring people enough that they didn't cause trouble. The world didn't need Daisy to do that.

The world needed Daisy to track down aliens like Thor and make sure their existence didn't cause mass panic. The world needed Daisy to make people trust her and tell the truth, even when it's a truth so ridiculous no one believes it. The world needs Daisy, whose seen enough to know anything is possible, to be fighting that anything that came. "Iron Girl is cool and all, but I think I like Agent Stark better."

"I figured," Tony sighed before handing her another pendant like the one she'd just used on the destroyer. Daisy stared at him, and he broke out into a grin. "It connects the robot to J.A.R.V.I.S's mainframe, remember. You're not the only one who sees that, remember."

How could she possibly forget? As much as she was branching out from her father's legacy, theirs would always be intertwined. That wasn't a bad thing though. She suspected that it wouldn't always be a helpful name to have, but Daisy was proud to be the Starkling.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I've mentioned before how time in MCU makes no sense, right? Well listen to this. Fitzsimmons go to the Academy in 2004, right? And graduated in 2013 because the Bus was their first assignment. That's 8 years they were at the Academy… and they graduated 3 years early. Are you telling me the Academy is an 11 year program? That would make no sense. So, for the sake of the story the Science Academy is a 4 year program, Ops a 2 year program, and Communications a 3 year program with the third year involving an internship. Also, Fitzsimmons do go to the Academy aged 17, but like Daisy the year they were born has been changed to 1992. If sorry if that bother anyone, but I change things for plot purposes.

Daisy was eternally grateful that her dad didn't ask to drive her to the Academy or something. Showing up first day with Tony Stark would have brought about too many questions, and the subject of favoritism. No, Daisy didn't want anyone to know who her father was. She was here out of her own merit, not because of who her father was.

Which was why all the final paperwork didn't list her as Daisy Stark, but as Daisy Johnson.

The name was the most obvious choice. She couldn't be a Stark, not if she wanted to be treated normally. And she sure as Hell wasn't going back to Mary Sue Poots. Johnson was the least inconspicuous name she could think of. Smith was too common, and Johnson… she liked it. Plus, it made her think of the Rock, which was amusing.

Beyond the name though, Daisy had made some other changes to keep her identity secret. She'd cut her hair to make her look less like the pictures people might know. She barely recognized herself as the media's Starkling, and hopefully no one else would either.

It felt good, to branch out from her father's control and legacy as someone new. Even when he was presumed dead, Tony had ruled Daisy's life. The need to mourn him had controlled her then, and his legacy controlled her afterwards. She'd been going to his alma mater for Christ's sake. Daisy Stark could never be her own person. She would always be Tony Stark's daughter, much the same way Tony was always "Howard's son". Daisy Johnson was a girl who wasn't close to her workaholic father, and who had lost her mother, and it wasn't a complete lie. The details didn't need to be shared, and Natasha, who'd helped her get registered assured Daisy that unless she told someone, they wouldn't be.

So, confident in her new identity, Daisy Johnson pulled into the S.H.I.E.L.D Communications Academy, and took in the sights. It was a modern looking building, with the typical amount of white modern buildings have, but really nothing special. Anyone who didn't know better would surely believe that it was just some other college, but it wasn't. This was S.H.I.E.L.D, and none of the cadets here were planning on going out and working normal jobs.

Yet the place looked remarkable normal. Second year cadets and professors guided first-years to where they needed to be. Files filled with schedules, handbooks, and dorm assignments were handed out. The place looked so normal it was amazing. The only thing that really made it any different from a normal college's move in day was those moving in.

They varied in age from, as far as Daisy could tell, eighteen to twenty five. It made sense she guessed. You needed to have certain skills before you could go to the Academy. Some people, most actually, didn't get those skills without a PhD in their field, others, like Daisy, had more unconventional methods of learning the material. How and when they learned it didn't matter, only that they had, so the cadets were all different ages. Weird as it was, Daisy kind of liked it. Most of the cadets were older, and she had never gotten along that well with people her age.

"Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D, Miss Johnson," the professor handing Daisy her file welcomed with a knowing smile and Daisy wondered if perhaps it was only the cadets Coulson had guaranteed wouldn't know her identity. "Your dorm is right around the corner."

Daisy thanked her, and tried to follow the flow of traffic towards where the dorms were. As she studied the map and tried to find room 12, she ended up slamming into someone who looked equally as confused.

"Oh I'm so sorry," he muttered picking up their dropped files and trying to figure out what belonged to who. "I was just trying to find my dorm and I…"

Daisy waved off his words. "I wasn't paying attention either, don't fret it. I'm Daisy." It still felt weird introducing herself as such, but it was kind of exciting in the way dress up is exciting for little kids.

"Cameron Klein, but everyone calls me Cam…" he muttered back, looking surprised that someone, never mind a girl, would be talking to him. Or perhaps he was just off put by her age. She was definitely on the lower end of the spectrum, and Cam had to be at least five years older than her. "So… you must be really smart to have your degree so young…"

Daisy laughed at the idea of even having a degree, "Actually, I never even went to college. I'm smart, but not like everyone else here. I'm just good with computers I guess."

It was a broad understatement and they both knew it. You didn't get into the S.H.I.E.L.D Academy if you were good with computers. You had to be spectacular, and Daisy was. She wasn't about to tell the world the way her dad would, but it was true. Daisy Stark was just as brilliant as Tony Stark, if in a different way.

"Well, um, I better go find my dorm," Cam muttered spinning as if somehow that would help him find things better. "See you around Daisy… um bye."

He practically ran away, and Daisy was left laughing. She hoped everyone here wasn't that socially inept, or it was going to be a long two years at the S.H.I.E.L.D Academy.

Finally, Daisy found dorm 12, and used the fancy finger-print scanner to enter. If she thought her father's security was paranoid, S.H.I.E.L.D was way beyond that. Well, at least she wouldn't be getting shot at any time soon…

A giant textbook hit Daisy's face the minute she stepped into the room.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't expect you to open the door," a girl, presumably Daisy's roommate, apologized. "Your nose doesn't look broken though, so that's good."

Daisy rubbed it and twinged at the pain; just because it wasn't broken didn't mean it didn't hurt. She knew that from every relationship she'd ever experienced. Still, Daisy didn't want to make the wrong impression. "It's fine, I should have knocked."

"It's your room too," the girl sat back on the bed and Daisy studied her. She was older, probably 20 or so, but still young. She had to be a genius to be here so young, but then again, everyone at the Academy was a genius in one way or another. "I'm Delaney Devont."

"Daisy Johnson," she answered carefully refolding her clothes and putting it in the dresser. A few years ago Daisy wouldn't have cared how something was folded, but Pepper could rub off on you. "This place is wicked cool, right?"

Daisy meant the Academy itself, but Delaney seemed to think she meant the stuffy and small dorm because she scoffed. "I think we're all a little old for roommates, well maybe not you, you look like you belong in middle school, but I certainly am."

"I'm 17," Daisy huffed deciding that she didn't really like Delaney all that much. "And I think it's good for us to have to room with people. You don't get private rooms on missions."

Delaney scoffed. "Like you know anything about missions. I bet you hadn't even heard about S.H.I.E.L.D until they turned up at your Robotics fair." Daisy wanted to point out that if she built robots she'd be at sci-tech, but she held her tongue. "My mother is an agent, and so was my grandfather before her. He knows Peggy Carter."

And Daisy knew a god, but was she flaunting that information? (Well, maybe she should just a little.) "For your information, Delaney third-generation S.H.I.E.L.D agent, I've been on a mission, I've had Director Fury in my living room, Natasha Romanoff submitted my recommendation which was later cosigned by Clint Carton and Phil Coulson, all of who I have the phone number for so don't go flaunting your heritage. You're not the only special one here. If you were, I wouldn't be the youngest Coms cadet in history. You would be."

Well that completely shut the bitch down, for now at least. Daisy knew she probably shouldn't have made herself sound so impressive, it would probably backfire soon, but she couldn't help it. She was probably the richest, most privileged kid in the country, if not the world, and she didn't have the same sense of entitlement Delaney seemed too. Daisy knew the pain of this world, and if Delaney didn't hop off her high horse and learn some manners she'd never survive as an agent. An agent has to be able to take pain, and Daisy could. That was the only thing in this whole Academy Daisy was sure she'd succeed at.


	6. Chapter 6

The first day of classes was terrifying because Daisy had no idea what to expect. From 9-11 she had Computer Science I, then a break until 1 when she had to be over at the Science and Technology campus for Engineering I. After that she had 15 minutes to make it back to campus for Operations I for non Operation cadets, whatever that meant. Then she had History of Shield, and even an elective block, which somehow had her taking a dancing class. She didn't even want to know how badly that would end.

Daisy was actually slightly confused by her schedule. If she was a Coms cadet why then was she taking classes for the other two academies? Basic operations she got, every agent needed to be able to defend themselves, but why engineering? She wasn't an engineer, her dad was! She liked software! Yet they seemed curious as to if she could do the engineering as well, simply because of her father. It was infuriating! Even here she was being compared to him. She loved him, really, but why did everyone want her to be him so badly? He really wasn't that perfect.

But he wasn't a bad hero, and Daisy had to remind herself of that. S.H.I.E.L.D was about making all their agents into non-powered heroes. If Daisy had a latent engineering ability they'd want to know so she could use it for the betterment of the world. She really couldn't fault them for that.

Still, she would have had more fun in the hacking class it appeared most of the first year Coms cadets were taking. Yet she knew how to hack, probably better than anyone. She really wasn't at the Academy to relearn everything she knew, so it did make sense for her to be learning other stuff.

And she was grateful they hadn't just made her an engineering cadet, because if it didn't work out she could just go back to her Coms stuff with no harm done. Really, as much as it annoyed her, it wasn't that bad of a plan after all.

Daisy was grateful that everyone had coded before that first Computer Science class. The Professor didn't have to explain the basics. Actually, she didn't explain anything at all. "You all have a set of data collected on an object. Using that data design a simulation that shows how the object can be listed. Once you've figure out how to lift the hammer write it down on a piece of paper, put your name on it, and you're free to go."

Many cadets seemed terrified at the prospect. Others, like Delaney, were thoroughly confident in their abilities and set to work immediately coding their program. Only Daisy realized the real point of this test, and then again she had an incredibly unfair advantage. She knew how the story ended. They could code simulations all day trying to figure it out, but in the end they wouldn't be able to. That was the real lesson they wanted every S.H.I.E.L.D agent to learn their first day. That was the lesson Daisy learned over a year ago when her Father returned from Afghanistan with shrapnel closing in on his beating heart. Sometimes there is no answer to a problem, and you have to fight anyways.

Daisy scoured up a piece of paper, and scribbled down her answer. The Professor had to know that Daisy would have a bit of insight into this problem. That Daisy would pass the first test not out of brains but out of experience. Still, if the Professor for some reason didn't know what happened in New Mexico, Daisy's answer wouldn't compromise any classified information.

She was about to get up and hand it in, when someone else stood first. It was a boy, probably 25, and he didn't have anything to hand in. He just walked out of the room, and Daisy knew he was never coming back. Nineteen first year cadets left, and 240 days of classes to go. The odds were not looking good.

There was a bit of grumbling when Daisy handed in her paper, but she didn't stick around long enough to find out. She had the whole morning to herself it seemed, and she had a promise to keep.

"So how's school? Is your roommate nice? Shouldn't you be in class?"

"Everything is fine, Mom," Daisy loved the way Pepper blushed whenever called Mom. The woman knew it was basically true, and that made it all the more fun. "My roommate is a bitch, but I shut her down quickly. So she hates me, but will surely be quiet about it."

Pepper sighed on the other side of the phone. "Aren't you supposed to be making friends?"

Daisy had never really had friends. Not when she was going from foster home to foster home. Not when she was the smartest kid in her High School. And that probably wouldn't change here at the Academy. Daisy didn't care though. Who needed friends when you were studying to change the world? "They just gave us a test to figure out how to lift Thor's Hammer. I had an unfair advantage to say the least, but I'm probably still going to get an A, so the other cadets will hate me soon enough, I'm not going to bother making friends."

"I don't understand why every adult likes you and no one your own age ever does," Pepper really took the mom thing to a whole other level whenever Daisy's social life came up. "What about boys, is there anyone cute who you could help with his homework?"

Daisy hadn't even attempted a relationship in High School because she just wanted to get out of there. Now she couldn't just graduate early if she worked hard, and perhaps she should find a guy. "I don't need a man Pepper; I'm fine on my own."

"Your father leaves you alone too much." Pepper was probably right on that one. Tony and Daisy would go whole days without speaking to each other, not out of anger, but just because they were both too wrapped up in their own minds to remember the other. "Try to make friends?"

"I promise I will." Daisy would try. She didn't like being alone all the time. She just didn't mind it, and found it much harder to be in someone's company. "Is dad around?"

Pepper might have been the one who made Daisy promise to call, but Tony would definitely be upset (on the inside) if they didn't talk. "Hi, I'm sorry, I don't know who Daisy Johnson is. Should I know you?"

"You said you weren't still bitter about the name!" She knew he was totally annoyed about it, but he had said that of course he didn't care what she was called. "It's not like I legally changed it, it's just a cover, you know because I'm at spy school. It's good practice really."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say." Daisy heard a whooshing noise, and then some clattering. "Um, I have to go. Rhodey just showed up and knocked over Dummy, who well, he knocked over everything. Bye Daisy, I love you."

"Love you too." She whispered knowing he'd already hung up. He was very careful about not presenting her the chance to say I love you; it would freak him out too much to hear it. Daisy didn't really mind; her father was just weird about a lot of things like that.


	7. Chapter 7

Daisy connected her school laptop to J.A.R.V.I.S's interface before heading over to Sci-tech for her engineering class. Something told her that it was most definitely not going to be as easy as her last one.

The Sci-Tech campus looked almost exactly like the Coms one. The only difference was the cadets. At Coms you found lots of hipsters used to hacking off their smart phones. At Sci-tech, well these were your true nerds to the Coms geeks.

They were partnered up, and Daisy found herself with a nerdy Scottish dude named Fitz. (She had no idea if that was a first or last name, and didn't want to ask.) They'd been tasked with the 'simple' challenge of creating a break in an electrical circuit, and Fitz was already at work before Daisy could even introduce himself. She was glad for the partner, but his brilliance only went to show how much she did not belong in an engineering class. She was pretty sure that electrical currents were sine curves, but how you made an asymptote in one Daisy had no idea. Engineering was her dad's thing, and this just went to prove it.

"That was stupid," Fitz announced 10 minutes later. "I did this in University."

Daisy was beginning to wonder if the kid who walked out of her first class had the right idea. She really just wanted to walk back to the Coms campus, but wasn't sure who she talked to about changing her schedule because this was stupid. She had no idea how to do any of this.

"Miss Johnson, can I speak with you for a minute after class?"

Daisy wanted to object that she'd probably be late for Ops as it was, but figured it wasn't the best idea. Plus, the Professor was hopefully going to be like 'this is a huge mistake, your free to go to hacking tomorrow.'

"Fitz did all the work, correct?" The Professor, a woman named Holling, confirmed. "He's as brilliant as you, if in a different way."

"Look Agent Holling…"

"I know you don't want to be in this class," she interrupted giving Daisy a stern look. "And I know your father. I worked for him before joining S.H.I.E.L.D, he was quite miffed when I quit to do so." So the Professors did know who she was, or some at least. "You're not the only Coms cadet they send over to do Engineering classes you know. Communications is a tricky subject, and they've talked about joining it with Sci-Tech for a while. It wastes potential not having you all together."

Daisy could see how the Coms belonged in with Sci-tech, but at the same time these kids were probably a lot smarter. They were like her father smart and Daisy… well she could beat spoiled Malibu kids easily, but not protégée.

"Unfortunately you're not allowed to drop this class, Director Fury's order." Daisy was really starting to wonder what game that man was playing, and why Daisy seemed to be one of his favorite pieces. "So you better ask Fitz questions next time so you can learn."

Daisy wanted to scream, but she was too old for that. Instead she just whined a bit. "Can I please be partners with someone else then. He seems way too smart to be social."

"Fitz doesn't relate well with his peers, and from what I hear you don't either. And yet Agent Romanoff likes you, so you mustn't be a complete drag." Adults were different. Adults had always liked Daisy in a way kids didn't. "Make him like you, let him teach you, and pass my class, understood?"

"Yes ma'am." This is what it meant to be part of S.H.I.E.L.D. Daisy would have to get used to taking orders, however little she liked it.

"You may go."

Daisy ran the mile back to her Ops class, and was just on time. However she was also a lot more tired than everyone else was, which did not come to her advantage since they were doing strength training.

"Even if you're not a Field Agent being part of S.H.I.E.L.D is dangerous." Their 'Professor', a 4th year Operations cadet who'd told them only to call her Agent 13, informed them. "When someone kidnaps you for your research you're going to want to be able to fight well enough to escape. If you're not strong enough you're never going to be able to fight your way out. I want you all to do 100 push-ups and then you can leave. I don't care if you're here all night, do 100." The woman was so bad ass she probably could put Natasha to shame (nah not really, but the point was there), and so, despite her exhaustion, Daisy started.

It was agonizing work for a bunch of kids who'd spent their lives in labs and on laptops, but some got done sooner rather than later. Delaney was one of the first done of course, and she flashed a catty grin at Daisy before leaving the gym. The anger just made Daisy stronger, and she finished up soon after. She'd been doing 50 pushups daily for the last year, it wasn't too terrible to do twice that.

But Daisy was lucky. For the past year she'd been living with the memories of how helpless Obadiah made her feel, and she'd been learning to fight back. The dozen of kids collapsing on the mats after number 25 hadn't had that experience.

"Arching your back makes it harder," Daisy told the girl next to her. The girl was young, Daisy's age, and terrified. "Don't think about how much it hurts, think about how much everything else in life hurts, and how doing this can stop that."

The girl took a break, and looked at Daisy like she was nuts. Obviously she didn't know that feeling Daisy was talking about, but then again, who did? "If you're finished why haven't you left?"

She sounded bitter, but Daisy didn't mind. She'd probably sounded pretty darn bitter back in her engineering class. "Start again, I'll help you." The girl seemed wary, but pushed herself up. Daisy wrapped her arm under the girl's stomach and helped steady her with each push-up. "I'm Daisy by the way."

"Jemma Simmons," the girl replied gritting her teeth against the pain. It was probably much easier now with Daisy helping her, but for someone who'd never tried 100 pushups was Hell.

"What are you doing?" Daisy had been so focused on keeping Jemma going that she hadn't even noticed Agent 13 approaching. "I never said you could help each other."

The smart thing to do would be apologize and run away, but Daisy didn't feel like it. If S.H.I.E.L.D was all about doing what you're told when you're told Natasha would never have recommended her. If Daisy couldn't be herself she didn't want to last more than a day. "You never said we couldn't."

Agent 13 looked dumbfounded for a second, but she finally nodded. "Fine, but for everyone you help I want ten pull ups."

"Why would you get in trouble for me?" Jemma asked as they finished up. "You don't even know me."

"Sure I do," Daisy replied with a smile. "You're Jemma Simmons, the girl from Sci-Tech who just did 100 pushups, and I'm Daisy Johnson, the girl from Coms who is going to do 10 pull ups."

Jemma laughed, and it was a sweet laugh. Perhaps she could text Pepper later tonight and say she had made a friend after all.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so barely got any comments on the first two fics but I'm very glad that you guys are commenting now it's fun to chat.

It's odd how those things you do for another always end up helping yourself. Daisy had no way of knowing it when she helped Jemma with her pushups, but the next day Fitz was going to actually talk her through the little drone they were building. And the next day he was almost friendly when correcting the flaws in her blueprint.

It took Daisy a few days to learn why, but she mentioned it to Jemma when they were running, and she confessed that Fitz and she were friends. Apparently they'd bonded over British things, like tea and Doctor Who. By helping Jemma Daisy had actually made two new friends, and it was kind of nice.

And so the first months at the S.H.I.E.L.D Academy went. All the Coms cadets hated Daisy for being too good with computers. All the Sci-Tech kids hated Fitzsimmons (as everyone had taken to calling them) for being too good at everything else. And the three of them banded together to get through the Hell that was Operations class. Agent 13 was a menace, and after the first day she was incredibly specific in her instructions about not helping each other. Still, she seemed to take a liking to Daisy for her insolence, and pushed the girl to do twice what everyone else was. Daisy didn't mind; she wanted to be the best she could be. If she could fight like a true S.H.I.E.L.D agent, she could be one.

Daisy's relationship with her father was improving too, now that she wasn't living with him. It's funny how things like that work out, but it's true. She talked to him almost every day and told him about life at the S.H.I.E.L.D Academy. In turn he brainstormed new tech with her, and talked about his exploits as Iron Man. Daisy could have, of course, just read about them online, but it was far more fun to hear about them from the man himself.

"So Fitzsimmons and I went into the city the other day," Daisy chattered while tweaking her location-specific encryption to include altitude, as Tony had suggested. "And we saw a remarkable sight. A man in a giant metal suit was flying around with a little kid in a very similar suit. It was very cute."

Tony laughed on the other end; he loved it when Daisy described him as cute. "Make a Wish asked, how could I say no? Fun fact, it was actually a girl."

Daisy was impressed. "She would totally have preferred Iron Girl."

"Who are you talking to?"

Daisy slammed the video chat shut as Delaney appeared in the doorway. "What are you doing here? Don't you have hacking?"

"I left my report here," Delaney made it sound like a curse, and she was being more civil than normal. "Was that Tony Stark?"

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. "Oh yes, because I definitely just chat with Tony Stark about my work. Him and I are just Bffs."

If they'd been 5 years younger Delaney would have stuck out her tongue, but instead she just grabbed her report, flipped Daisy off, and walked out.

"Oh you are still there," Tony chattered brightly when she reopened the laptop. "What was that?"

"Something I haven't heard the end of I'm sure," Daisy sighed cursing herself. She should have been more careful. If she'd been more vigilant she would have known that Delaney was coming. What a shitty spy she was. "I need to go, I'll talk to you soon. Give Pepper my love, and don't forget to give her your own as well."

Daisy clicked out of the chat, and sat back in her chair. It was against every single rule of the school, but then again so was whatever Delaney would do with the information if she knew who Daisy really was. It couldn't hurt just to check…

For a school full of hackers, the Communication Academy's wifi really sucked. The administration gathered information to keep an eye on the cadets, make sure they weren't bad seeds, but that same information could be viewed by just about anyone with the knowledge to access it.

If Daisy really thought about it, she'd realize she was the only one who could hack into it, but she didn't think too much on it. And if she had she would have brushed it off because she wasn't as arrogant as her father, most of the time.

Tracking down Delaney's computer amid all them was difficult, but not for Daisy. She'd long ago made sure she knew every unique signature that laptop gave off, just in case something like this happened.

Her browsing history was pretty normal, the kind of things you Google as a Coms cadet. Then there was the other stuff that Daisy wished she hadn't seen, but were just the price of the job.

There was nothing relating to Tony Stark though, so Daisy was just about to consider herself safe when the new image search came through-Daisy Stark. So Delaney wasn't as stupid as her test scores would indicate.

Daisy wanted to punch a wall, but she had to get to Ops. Just because engineering was called off because of a chemical leak that didn't mean Daisy was free from all classes.

They were doing partner work in Ops, which was spectacular. Normally Jemma and Daisy would fight, Fitz partnering up with Cam, the cadet Daisy ran into first day. Today though Daisy had a different target in mind. Maybe she couldn't punch a wall, but she could punch the annoying fly on it.

"You know you really think you're clever, don't you," Delaney sneered once the mats were in place. "The haircut is nice, I honestly didn't recognize you. But not even changing the first name… that a rookie mistake."

Daisy didn't reply with her lips, instead she wrapped her leg around Delaney and smashed the girl into the ground. (She even got a 'god job' from Agent 13, which any other time Daisy would have loved, but today she barely heard it.) "Oh boo hoo you figured out my big secret. The whole school says I only got in because my dad's Iron Man, so what?"

Daisy missed a beat, and felt Delaney's fist in her stomach. "So something. You obviously don't want people to know or you wouldn't have picked the new name."

In all honesty she did care; that was the problem. Daisy wasn't ready to go back to just being good because she was Tony Stark's daughter. Why couldn't she be good because she was good? Tony Stark wasn't the reason Delaney was lying flat on her ass, Daisy Stark was. "Let me guess, I have to do something for you or you'll make sure everyone in the school knows who I really am."

"Oh it's nothing," Delaney swore twirling around so now they were both wrestling on the ground. "You just have to give me a crack at the S.H.I.E.L.D servers."

What? Daisy had expected something more along the lines of 'do my homework for a month', not that. "What makes you think I even have access?"

Delaney flipped Daisy, before turning around to pull off her gloves. "Don't play dumb Daisy, you're not dumb. I want to know what the Avengers Initiative is, and I want to know what happened in New Mexico. I'm not going to tear down any governments or something."

Daisy doubted that. "And if I don't?"

"Then the little Starkling is going to learn how to fly, because everyone who got here by their own merit is going to chase her out of here."

Daisy growled, more annoyed that Delaney would threaten her than by the threat. Without thinking, Daisy slammed her fist into the girl's nose, and heard a sickening snap. "That's for the first day of school you bitch."

"Hey," Agent 13 called, coming over to see what the fuss was about. "Her gloves are off Daisy. That means you're supposed to stop, remember?"

"Of course, I didn't realize she was done," Daisy muttered a smile on her face. "I'm so very sorry about your perfect nose Delaney, would you like me to walk you to the Infirmary?"

"Oh very kind of you, Daisy, but I think I can fly there myself. Some girls are made of iron you know and don't need to be saved."

Daisy should have let it drop, but the bitch just had it coming for her. "Well, it's a good thing there are people out there to save the rest of you who aren't. See you back in our room!"


	9. Chapter 9

Delaney was walking back from the infirmary muttering about all the horrible things she was going to do when she saw him. He stood in an alley off to the side, just staring at her. Trembling, she went over. "Daisy thinks calling her daddy to come and defend her is so scary, well it just shows she's a…" She turned the corner into the ally, but Iron Man wasn't there.

No, he was standing outside the door to their doom room. "Wow, who knew you were as much a coward as your daughter. You want to protect her, don't threaten me, I'm not scared." The trembling in her voice would beg to differ. "Give me all you know about the Avengers Initiative and I won't tell anyone that that freak is your daughter."

"Oh you won't be telling anyone." Delaney turned, and standing behind her was the Black Widow looking furious. "The Avengers Initiative is level 7, you shouldn't even have heard the name. I guess that means your mom can come to the Sandbox with you."

That scared Delaney. "I didn't do anything wrong! Daisy was the one who mentioned Avengers to me! I didn't do anything you can't send me to the Sandbox!"

"We'll see about that." She disappeared into the darkness, and Delaney turned to find Iron Man gone as well. Shaking, Delaney wandered into the common room, and decided sleeping on the couch there was way safer than going back with Daisy.

The next day Delaney didn't tell anyone who Daisy was, because she was too busy looking over her shoulder for S.H.I.E.L.D agents. And considering every single professor was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, it was pretty damn impossible to stay away from them.

"I'm sorry okay!" Delaney burst into her and Daisy's room, tears staining the older girl's eyes. "I won't tell anyone about your dad! Just don't let them send me to the Sandbox!"

Daisy smiled at the girl, and nodded. Pulling out her phone, she dialed and waited for the answer. "She really doesn't know shit about Avengers Natasha, no more than anyone around campus does. I think she's fine not going to the Sandbox…Yes I'll keep an eye on her… yeah I'm make sure she knows you'll break a lot more than her nose if she comes near me again… Bye Nat, tell Clint I said hi… yes, I'll talk to you soon."

Delaney breathed heavily, and packed up her stuff. "You're a bitch, you know that? I'm moving in with Jenna and Ashley because they're better than living with a psycho like you!"

"Don't threaten me again," Daisy replied her voice sounding awfully like Natasha's. "Don't threaten any S.H.I.E.L.D agent or future agent again. The Sandbox is for S.H.I.E.L.D's worst criminals, and there is no higher offence than messing with your own, alright?" Delaney nodded frantically, tears in the corner of her eyes. "Get out of here."

Delaney was gone before Daisy could even finish the sentence. Smiling to herself, Daisy pressed a few buttons, and watched as her lovely holograms appeared besides her. "Nice work."

Now that Delaney and her obnoxious music was gone, Daisy fell asleep easily for the first time in months. When she awoke, however, it was still dark, and she heard shuffling in the corner of the room.

Daisy didn't turn on the light, but recognized the figure anyway. Natasha Romanoff certainly looked like the poisonous spider in her new black suit and the shadows of the room. "I don't like being used for personal vendettas."

Daisy wasn't surprised that Natasha knew. The Academy had cameras everywhere, and whoever operated them probably spilled the beans. "I just scared her a little bit. Having my dad was scary, not nowhere near as terrifying as you."

"You broke her nose. Something tells me that wasn't a training accident."

Daisy scoffed. Was Natasha 'super assassin' Romanoff really lecturing her about hurting people? "Like you haven't done far worse just because people annoyed you."

Natasha moved lighting fast, pinning Daisy up against the wall by her neck. "You don't want to become me Daisy. If you're going to ever do something like this again you can leave the Academy this minute. I'm not letting you become like me."

Natasha let go so the girl could breathe, and Daisy nodded furiously. Tears streamed down her cheeks as terror gripped her. "I won't do it again I promise! I just didn't want her thinking she could win."

"Never again," Natasha swore backing away. "S.H.I.E.L.D doesn't accept agents in wheelchairs, just an FYI. I thought you were made of something special Daisy, something that would keep you from becoming like Delaney, but if you're not I will keep you out of S.H.I.E.L.D, even if it means putting you in a wheelchair. Understood?"

Daisy sure as Hell understood. She thought she was being brave, bold, smart by going after Delaney, but really she had just been as much of a bully as Delaney was. "I understand, and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that, and I shouldn't have used you."

"I want you to either go home or apologize to Delaney tomorrow, it's up to you, but you need to pick Daisy, and stick with it. You're too good to let S.H.I.E.L.D destroy."

Natasha disappeared as quickly as she came, and Daisy sat in bed hating herself. She had been so stupid. She acted without thinking, and way over reacted. Worst of all she'd been scared. She was scared that people would know the truth, and that fear drove her to do something stupid. And to think Daisy thought joining S.H.I.E.L.D would help her not be scared anymore.

It clicked in Daisy's mind that she would always be scared when part of S.H.I.E.L.D. Someone would always be in danger whether it be someone Daisy loved or Daisy herself. She would always be scared, but she couldn't react like she had with Delaney. She had to let fear make her better. Could she do that?

"What do you want bitch?" Delaney asked when Daisy approached her the next morning. "What did I ever do to you to deserve this Hell?"

So much. "Nothing," Daisy admitted softly. "I am very sorry Delaney for what I did. I should not have broken your nose. I should not have scared you. None of it was real, just holograms I made. You are in no danger, and it was very wrong of me to make you think you were. I am very sorry."

Delaney stood, mouth open, staring, but Daisy walked away. "Whatever bitch! You're just a coward scared of what I'll tell people."

Of course Daisy was scared. She could get kicked out for what she did, but it didn't matter. Daisy wasn't going to do anything about her fear, just let it exist, and work as if it didn't.


	10. Chapter 10

Neither Fitz nor Jemma were Irish, but Daisy decided that they were close enough, and they went out on St. Patrick's Day. Sure, it was a Tuesday and they all had work they should be doing, but it felt wrong not to celebrate. They were 3/4th of the way done with their first year at the Academy. It had been Hell lots of the time, but it had been good. For the first time in all of their lives they had friends their own age, and it was wonderful.

"No, Daisy, you didn't," Jemma looked horrified when Daisy pulled out the fake ID's. "We don't even look 21!"

"No, we look 22," Daisy argued pointing to their birthdays. "I made these at school. They're top grade. A police officer could look at them and think they're real."

Simmons looked really nervous, but Fitz was grinning. "Come on Jemma, it's okay to break the rules every now and again."

Jemma Simmons was not the type to be peer-pressured though, and she refused. "Fine, then we can do something that isn't technically against the rules. Like raid Operations."

It wasn't against the rules for the sheer fact that it was a stupid idea no one could pull off. Operations had people on guard 24/7, patrols, the whole shebang. They were more likely to get shot trespassing at the Operations Academy than at the White House.

"Agent Coulson said you're not a S.H.I.E.L.D agent unless you have at least one ridiculous Academy story. Everyone else's Academy stories begin with them being drunk, but according to Simmons we're too young for that. This is the next best option."

Daisy had no idea how she convinced them that that was in any shape or form true, but they agreed. Of course Fitzsimmons would agree to do the technically-legal-but-stupid thing instead of just getting drunk.

Daisy figured the best way to be prepared was just to take every little gadget Fitz had built and toss it in a bag, because who knew what they would face. Surely he had to have something for whatever they came across, and if they didn't… well they'd improvise.

Jemma apparently had some artistic ability as well, because she created the sign they would hang inside the cafeteria to prove what they'd done. Daisy stuffed that in their gadget bag as well, and got ready. "Now remember that we don't want to fight an Ops cadet, because we'll lose. So we go unseen," Daisy reminded them as they reached the high fence and 'keep out' signs. "It looks to me like the patrol takes 7 minutes to come around and once they pass again I'm all set to loop the camera feeds. I'm guessing it will take them 15 minutes to notice that, so that's how much time we have to get out."

Fitzsimmons looked ready to back out, but they didn't say anything. Once the patrol passed, Fitz was even the one who cut the fence so they could sneak in. The three dashed across the lawn, staying low to the ground and blending in with the shadows. Once inside, Daisy pulled them immediately into an empty room to scour the layout. Despite being a lot colder, the Ops Academy appeared to be lain out in the same way as the other two. Daisy gave the hand signal for 'follow me' and practiced her silent running, mentally checking off one item of homework she had to do. At one point they came across a band of cadets, and Fitz panicked trying to pull back. Daisy, however, just kept walking and laughing, and the cadets didn't even look up. Daisy was used to going unseen whenever she went into public with her dad. She knew the best way wasn't to hide, but to act like there was no reason you should be hiding.

The cafeteria doors were locked, but that didn't slow them down. Fitz had designed a device to pick locks automatically back in October, and it sure as Hell came in hand now.

It took them only a minute to hang the banner and escape back out of the Cafeteria. The group in the hallway from before were gone, but a bunch of scary looking girls had replaced them. "Who are you?"

"I'm Darcy Lane and this is Jessamine Stale and Larry French," Daisy answered with a smile. "Can I like take a picture of you guys to prove that upperclassmen spoke to us?"

The girls laughed, and shook their heads. "Move on while you can, Carter is coming to meet us and she would not be as approving of you being out after curfew as we are."

"But you're out after curfew," Fitz pointed out and Daisy was worried his confused look would get them in trouble. Instead the girls just laughed, and Daisy pulled him out of the building. She forgot to check her watch before they did though, and the patrol was just looping back around.

"Under the bush," Daisy whispered pushing them down. The three sat on top of each other under the bush waiting silently for the patrol to find and kill them, but the running cadets just kept moving. Once they were gone, Daisy and Fitzsimmons dashed back onto the other side of the fence and away.

"Do you feel like that was too easy?" Daisy laughed as they strolled back towards their campuses. "Like these are our future Field Agents, and that was pretty pitiful."

Jemma looked at Daisy like she had two heads. "Are you kidding? I spent that whole time thinking I was going to die!"

"But you didn't," Daisy reminded her friend with a firm pat on the back. "And we just proved that generations of Sci-Tech and Coms Cadets are chicken for nothing. No one will ever know it's us. Honestly, I just wish we could see the look on those Ops kids faces when they see it in the morning!"

Fitzsimmons exchanged a look, but smiled. "I feel like our Academy years would have been a lot less interesting if you weren't here Daisy," Jemma admitted as she and Fitz turned to go back to Sci-Tech. "I'm glad you are though. That was fun. Much more fun than getting drunk illegally."

It probably said a lot about the Cadets of S.H.I.E.L.D that they thought so, but perhaps that was the point.


	11. Chapter 11

Daisy was summoned to Agent McGee, the head of the Communications divison's office first thing the next morning. She knew they'd been caught and grabbed her student handbook so she could commit the words to memory on the walk. Technically they hadn't broken any rules, and Daisy just had to prove it.

Fitzsimmons were already there with Agent Weaver, their head, and the three girls they ran into on their way out of the Academy. "This is the last girl?" Agent McGee confirmed, and the Ops students nodded, looking embarrassed. Apparently Daisy and Fitzsimmons weren't the only ones in trouble. "You three can return to class."

Daisy sat besides Fitzsimmons feeling terrible. They both looked ready to cry and all because of her. It had been Daisy's idea after all.

"Look, agent McGee, technically we didn't break any rules. Cadets are permitted to visit other divisions of the Academy if they deem themselves to have appropriate cause. We deemed the chance to test our new abilities appropriate cause. So really you can't punish us and need to find the person who wrote the handbook to yell at."

Agent McGee was smiling. "We weren't planning on punishing you Miss Johnson. We were hoping to congratulate you. We were also hoping you'd write a mission report so we can identify the areas of weakness in the security. We only found you because you identified yourselves as from Sci-tech and Ops. The girls on guard duty only described you as 'a ginger Scottish guy brownish, blondish, redish girl and a brown haired girl all about 17." We wouldn't have identified you from the general population, only ours here. If you had actually been a threat we would be in a very dangerous situation at the moment. Your ingenuity has possibly saved us all."

Daisy and Fitzsimmons looked at each other amazed to have gotten praised instead of expelled. "Yeah, I'll write the mission report," Daisy finally replied. "Honestly, the security is terrible."

"And we intend to fix that," Agent McGee assured. "The report by tomorrow please, Miss Johnson, now to class."

If Daisy thought it was over though, she was wrong. The whole Ops class stood awkwardly wondering where Agent 13 was. When she showed up, she dropped Jemma's banner on the floor. "Three of you managed to do last night what generations of cadets have been too cowardly to even try. For that, I will congratulate you all. The managed to lie to three fourth year operations cadets and not be discovered." Daisy didn't have to look to know Agent 13's eyes were on her. "You were lucky. The cadets weren't expecting anyone to lie to them. But you might one day have to lie when expected to which is why today you're all going to try to lie to a polygraph."

"And me," Natasha peeled out of the shadows, a grin on her face. "It's one thing to keep your heartbeat steady enough to fool a machine. It's another thing to lie to someone trained the same way you are. Let's see if you can do it, though I doubt you can. No one has ever lied to me and gotten away with it."

It occurred to Daisy that everyone didn't know who this Agent Romanoff helping with their lesson was. They'd heard legends of the Black Widow, of course, but only those who knew S.H.I.E.L.D, namely Daisy and Delaney, knew this woman to be that legend. Even Fitzsimmons didn't know, and Daisy wasn't going to terrify them by telling.

While people one by one went back to try it out, Agent 13 explained the theory behind lying to a polygraph. Daisy didn't listen; she knew the theory. Find the truth in the lie. Make your body think it's telling the truth and the polygraph will think so too. It was lying to Natasha that would be impossible. The woman was scary good at lying; Daisy had seen it firsthand.

A couple of people came out crying, proving Daisy's point about Natasha. Fitz looked as if he'd been run over by a bus. Finally, it was Daisy's turn, and she entered the room.

"Nice job at Ops," Natasha smiled and Daisy breathed a sigh of relief, Apparently trespassing wouldn't result in paralyzation. "I volunteered to do this because of you, you know, so be grateful. Though, Clint might also have something to do with it… he doesn't' think I'll last an hour with cadets."

She'd already been terrorizing them for 50 minutes, so unless Daisy royally screwed up it looked like Nat was winning that bet.

"What's your name?" Natasha began after hooking Daisy up.

"Daisy Stark." It felt weird saying it at the Academy, but it was true. The antics of the night before were definitely proof she was her father's daughter.

"What's your birthday?"

These baseline questions weren't supposed to be difficult, but of course they were for Daisy. Complicated lives make everything complicated. "I don't know my exact birthday. The nuns listed it as July 1st for simplicity's sake."

"What were you doing when we first met?'

For a second Daisy was worried she wouldn't remember, but her ass did. "Happy and I were boxing, my dad let you get in the ring with me. I realized you were terrifying, and impressive."

Apparently even Natasha Romanoff liked compliments, because Daisy made out a thin smile. "Last June you were in New Mexico. What did you do there?"

Daisy knew this was a test. The problem was she really didn't know the answer. Surely Natasha had to know about Thor, but then again it was classified and Daisy wasn't supposed to talk about it. Yet she was trying to make Natasha believe her lies, so if Natasha knew what happened Daisy couldn't just lie… It was the classic case of not knowing how much your interrogator already knew, and it was cruel. Of course it was cruel-this was S.H.I.E.L.D training with Natasha Romanoff. It was meant to make Daisy better.

"It was a consultation to see whether or not I was an appropriate fit for the S.H.I.E.L.D Academy." Natasha had more or less used those same words when telling Daisy about it, so it was a pretty safe choice.

Natasha, of course, didn't like safe. "You met a man there with superhuman powers. Where was he from?"

Daisy was screwed with this question. If she said Asgard she'd be kicked out of the Academy for talking about classified information. If she said something else the polygraph would pick up the lie, and if it didn't Natasha would. Unless…

"I don't know," Daisy answered with a shrug. "I never asked him where he was from."

Natasha puckered her lips, and studied the polygraph. It had remained steady. "Nice try, but I'm not a machine. I know that you know where he's from. So where is he from?"

Daisy held her head high, locking eyes with Natasha. "I don't know where the man I met is from. You know when people are lying, so tell me, Agent Romanoff, am I lying?"

The two women stared for a painfully long time before Natasha disconnected the polygraph. "I've read the report. You were the first person to believe Thor was from Asgard. If I was actually your enemy I would have killed you by now."

If Natasha was Daisy's enemy she would have been dead even before the lying began. "Fine, then that's the price I pay for not giving up S.H.I.E.L.D intel that would endanger a man I consider a friend," Daisy shrugged standing up. She couldn't just go without asking though, because she just couldn't. "Tell me though, Natasha, was I lying?"

Natasha didn't answer, but that was enough of an answer for Daisy. She'd just bested the Black Widow, and damn if it didn't feel good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ten points to the Hogwarts house of choice if you can figure out how Daisy managed to get the lie out.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel terrible. For some reason yesterday's update didn't go through! I'm so sorry.

Daisy awoke to the fresh April morning and wanted to shoot it. She turned the clock around, not wanting to see the number five staring out at her, but it was no good. She was awake, and she wasn't falling back to sleep.

She wasn't sure what woke her in the first place; the whole building was silent. They'd all been brutalized in Ops the day before when Agent 13 brought out the batons, and then stayed up until about two hours ago watching movies. This was their last real weekend before they had to begin studying for final exams, and they were making the most of it. No one was getting up at 5 AM on a Sunday, except for, apparently, Daisy.

And Delaney. Daisy had no idea what happened during the polygraph, but ever since she'd been getting up at five every morning to go run a marathon. (Well, she only ran a half marathon really, but it was close enough.) And the girl had been vicious enough that Jenna and Ashley had forced her out of their room. Daisy offered for Delaney to return to their room, but she refused. Daisy didn't push it. If Delaney wanted to sleep in the common room, bite everyone's ear off, and run a half marathon every day that was her prerogative.

Daisy figured her dad would be awake, and considered calling him up. Yet she found herself with absolutely nothing to say. Her life consisted of classes, homework, and occasionally talking to Fitzsimmons, if it fit in with one of the two above. The night before had been the first time Daisy actually did something fun with the other Coms students since… since like her first week.

She didn't really mind the Academy engulfing every waking moment of her life. Daisy knew she was learning a lot of really important skills that would keep her, and others, alive. Plus, she actually was beginning to find herself competent at engineering, many thanks to Fitz for that. It was exciting, and would be far more exciting if she didn't spill the beans and tell her dad before summer break. She couldn't wait for the look on his face when he came down and saw her building something that would put his iron man suits to shame. Fitz was even helping her draw up blueprints for a 'completely theoretical' flying car. It could never exist in reality he said without the power from an arc reactor, and since Daisy of course didn't have access to that technology she was out of luck.

Yeah, she hadn't told Fitzsimmons about her dad yet. It wasn't that she didn't trust them, because she did. She trusted them more than she'd ever trusted anyone in her life. They always did what they said they would. They always were there for Daisy if she needed them. Again and again they'd proven Daisy was right to trust them.

So no, it wasn't lack of trust that kept Daisy from spilling the beans, it was lack of an appropriate situation. After all Daisy had been so tight lipped about her family from the beginning that they graciously stopped asking. Now there was no real way to tell them without randomly blurting out the information into a perfectly normal conversation. She'd tell them, but she needed a good chance, and hadn't had the time.

Perhaps when she got an arc reactor built with her dads help and flew their car to Scotland Daisy would be able to tell Fitzsimmons. Until then…

Until then she'd remain silent, to Fitzsimmons about her family, and to her family about, well, everything. There was nothing going on in Daisy's life that Tony would want to know about. Oh, they talked at least once a week, usually more, but never for long. Both were too busy with their own work to focus on the others. And they were okay with that, really and truly okay with that. They always did say your relationship with your parents gets better when you leave home, and Daisy truly was beginning to believe it.

Unsure what else to do, Daisy decided she should go for a run as well. A year ago she'd never have imagined herself in such good shape, but she still was far from field ready. And the longer Daisy was at the Academy the more she realized that she didn't just want to be shut up in an office hacking satellites forever. She wanted a Field assignment, but she'd have to pass the physical exam for that. Perhaps Delaney did have the right idea with her runs.

That didn't mean Daisy was going to start doing it every day, but she could definitely put in a couple miles before the run rose. Decided, she dressed quickly, and as she went to leave finally discovered what woke her.

Her door was open. Not much, but it had cracked open. That wasn't the weird thing though. The weird thing was that her door knob appeared to be lying on the ground-as a puddle of brass.

Perhaps she was going to have something to call her dad and talk about.

Daisy cleaned up the pile, and found it already hardened. She wasn't sure how it could have melted in the first place because, while a warm spring day, it wasn't 900 C out. Jemma might know, with her chemistry PhD, but Daisy had no idea. And since even Jemma wouldn't want to awake now in exchange for scientific discovery, Daisy just strapped on her sneakers and ran to the hardware store.

Of course it wasn't open. Daisy kept forgetting the time. So she pushed on running. The sun had begun to rise, and Daisy began to notice the destruction about town. A tree was downed, the top half lying in a puddle of solid tree. All about town solid objects weren't solid. Daisy's door knob had been one thing, the kind of thing that could wait another two hours until 8, but this couldn't.

Daisy was grateful that it was 6:00 by the time she made it back to the Academy and found Agent McGee's room. His lights were on, so at least Daisy wouldn't be waking him up to inform him of the town's state.

"If this is about the town melting," Agent McGee sighed when he opened the door. "I've already been informed."

Daisy nodded and was about to leave when she realized he thought only the town was melting. "Agent McGee, it has something to do with the Academy. My doorknob is melted as well, so whoever it is has been in the girl's dorm."

The frown on Agent McGee's face told Daisy that she was right; this was news to him. "Thank you Miss Johnson, I need you to return to the dorms and spread the word that there will be a mandatory meeting in a half hour. Anyone not in attendance will be considered an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D and treated as such."

Daisy nodded, and went on her way a chill in her spine. Agent McGee thought one of them was doing this, one of them had the technology to liquefy anything.

Unless it wasn't a piece of tech. S.H.I.E.L.D dealt with far weirder things than tech, they dealt with superheroes. And occasionally the other end of the spectrum- by supervillains.


	13. Chapter 13

Everyone came. Most of the girls whined when Daisy told them to get up, but once she explained they sobered up quickly. Everyone was scared, and everyone wanted to know who was doing this.

Daisy had never seen every single S.H.I.E.L.D Cadet in one place before, and it was terrifying. One hundred future agents sat in silence. No one asked what this was all about. No one asked who'd done it. No one breathed. There was a threat to the world among them, and no one wanted to know which of their friends it was.

They'd all scanned in, and from what Daisy could see on her phone everyone was accounted for. No one was an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D yet, but no one doubted someone would be before they were let out. It had a sobering effect, even on 100 young adults.

"There are S.H.I.E.L.D clean up teams out there right now cleaning up one of your messes," Agent Walker, the general Head of the Academy, finally began looking at the cadets. "No one has been hurt, and Communication Agents have already ensured there is no way this is making it onto the internet. We got lucky." Really, if they were lucky why did Agent Walker look so grave? "But we might not the next time. You are all well aware that as S.H.I.E.L.D Cadets you are held to a higher level of excellence. Yet, in light of the fact that none have been harmed, let it be known that if the culprit steps forward now there will be no consequences. If he or she does not reveal themselves now, know that you will be discovered and you will be sent to the Sandbox."

Everyone looked around, waiting for whoever it was to admit. Daisy spotted Fitzsimmons sitting close, relying on the other for security. She saw Agent 13 sitting with none other than the girls Daisy met when they snuck into Operations. She saw Delaney gripping her arm rest. Looking around the room, Daisy saw a hundred terrified cadets, but no one admitting to the crime.

"Very well then," Agent Walker decreed with a nod. "Remain in your seats until you are retrieved by your head of school for interrogation. No one is leaving until we have found whoever did this and properly neutralized them. Be wary. There is a threat in your midst."

People were wary, for a little while. The silence stretched out as students were pulled away for interrogation. Many returned crying. More than one didn't return at all. No one could find words to express the tension, so they remained silence.

It didn't last forever though. The Sci-Tech and Coms students got restless first, not having been trained for the waiting game the way their Ops counterparts were. Students started moving about the room, talking to friends. Soon enough the whole place burst into chatter, and the Agents didn't want to silence it. It was much more likely for someone to confess to their friends than in an interrogation.

Daisy wasn't surprised to be one of the first Agent McGee pulled away. Considering she'd been the first Cadet to report it she was actually surprised not to be the first one questioned. Still, they didn't keep her waiting long, and she was pulled out of the booming auditorium and into a classroom.

They were meeting at the Sci-Tech building, because it was in the middle of the three. Daisy recognized the room she was brought to as one of the Biology labs, not because she'd ever studied in it, but because Jemma always did. Daisy found it a comforting thought, knowing how much Jemma loved the room. It helped Daisy feel brave.

They didn't hook her up to a polygraph, probably because they were all trained to resist a polygraph. As Natasha had said it was far harder to lie to a person than to a machine. Agent McGee could spot a lie a mile away surely, so Daisy didn't plan on telling any.

"Miss Johnson, you arrived at my door at barely six this morning. Did you go immediately there after finding your door handle melted?"

Daisy shook her head. "When the handle melted my door swung open. It woke me up and I decided to go for a run to kill time."

"So you just went for a run knowing your door handle had somehow melted? Do you know the heat it would require to melt a brass doorknob?"

Yes she did, and so Daisy understood how bad it looked. Most people would probably have freaked out and run to tell someone the minute they saw something like that. "Well for one weird things happen in the dorms all the time. I figured some Sci-Techie had built something that could melt the handle, and didn't worry about it. It was only when I realized the town had been affected that I realized it was a threat."

"But still, you weren't concerned with a melted doorknob?"

"Agent McGee, I'm not sure if you know this, though I imagine you do, but my last name is not Johnson." He didn't look shocked, so Daisy figured he had known that. "My dad is Tony "I am Iron Man" Stark. I have woken up to far weirder things than a melted doorknob. Perhaps I should have thought more on it, but I just plain didn't. If that's a crime now, send me to the Sandbox."

Agent McGee seemed to be holding back a smile. Apparently he was like Coulson, Barton, and Romanoff-the type of agent who liked the snarky cadet. "I am well aware of your father Miss Johnson. And no, a perverted perception of what should and should not happen in reality is not yet a crime, though I'm sure some Senator is working on it." Probably Senator Stern the asshole. "And I do not, for the record, think you did this. It requires an understanding of thermodynamics and chemistry you do not have, and a technical skill you've yet to devote yourself to. I am simply hoping, as you are, to find whoever is doing this before they liquefy a person." Oh, wow, Daisy hadn't thought of that possibility. "So if you know anything, please, tell me."

"I wish I did," Daisy confessed knowing she should have known something but just plain didn't. "But I don't. I'm sorry Agent McGee. If there is anything I can do to help just let me know."

He nodded, but didn't say anything else except "you can go". Daisy felt pretty useless as she left the room. To think she'd come to S.H.I.E.L.D so she wouldn't always feel so useless, and here she was again. Perhaps Daisy would just always be powerless to stop the bad guys. Perhaps that was all she ever could be.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to encourage you all to go and read "White Starkling Christmas". It's a little oneshot set in the same universe as this but between Iron Man 1 and 2. And it's adorable. Also, Happy Christmas!

The auditorium was even wilder than when Daisy left, and she couldn't even find Fitzsimmons. She thought for a moment they had to be getting questioned, until she spotted them over in the corner. Carefully Daisy attempted to make it through the crowd, but she ended up getting pushed and tumbled over the chairs into Delaney's lap.

It could not possibly have gone any worse. Daisy would rather fall on top of one of the terrifying guys from Operations than Delaney who quickly pushed Daisy to the floor. "What the hell!" Delaney cried terror in her eyes. "Why did you just jump me! I didn't do anything!"

Wow, that was oddly tense, even for Delaney. Daisy was about to say so when she noticed the armrest had been crushed. No, not crushed, melted. She looked up at Delaney quickly, but the elder girl noticed Daisy's eyes. "Please, I can't stop," Delaney whispered looking around frantically to make sure no one else had noticed. "I'm not trying to hurt anyone, I just can't stop."

Delaney reached out to grab Daisy's arm, but she pulled away. If Delaney was somehow accidentally melting things, well Daisy did not want to be next. "Whatever device you're using, just crush it that has to stop it."

Delaney bit her lip, and shook her head frantically. "You don't understand Daisy. It's not a machine, it's me! I'm going this, and I don't know how to stop."

It was her. She'd somehow developed the ability to liquefy with a touch. That was so much worse than Delaney just having built some machine, especially if she really couldn't control it. "We can talk to Agent McGee. S.H.I.E.L.D knows about powers, they can help me."

"My mother's job is to kill enhanced out of control," Delaney hissed, grabbing Daisy's arm. Her skin didn't melt, but it was feeling awfully warm. "I might not be able to stop melting things, but I know how to start it. I can't guarantee I won't kill you accidentally, but I know as a fact I can kill you on purpose. Scream and I will."

Daisy didn't doubt it. She'd once seen a bunch of dogs corner a cat, and the cat won. A trapped animal would do anything, could do anything, and Delaney was that trapped animal.

"How do you plan on getting out of here?" Daisy spit, trying to pull her arm from Delaney, but finding it impossible. The girl's workouts were doing something. "We're locked in."

Delaney just kept pulling the two of them through the crowd, not being noticed at all. "Shut up."

Daisy did, and followed willingly. She didn't plan on letting Delaney kill her. If Delaney felt threatened she might just do so. In all honestly Daisy was more worried for Delaney's life than her own. Delaney was in a world of trouble, and locked in with everyone training to be that trouble.

Honestly, Daisy for the first time felt bad for Delaney. She was seriously messed up, and not just because of her newfound powers. "How did this happen to you?" Daisy whispered unsure where Delaney thought they were going. (Locked room and all.)

Delaney wasn't having any of it. "Shut up," she ordered, slamming her first against a chair and melting it. A girl sitting nearby noticed, and her eyes grew wide with horror. Delaney noticed, and promptly melted a hole in the wall causing sunlight to stream through.

Everyone noticed that. A few people screamed, but most just ran towards Delaney who, in turn, melted Daisy's sweatshirt right off. "Take one more step and I'll kill her," Delaney warned, and everyone skidded to a stop. Someone must have run to get the Agents, because they came running into the room full speed. "Daisy will be fine, so long as you all let me out of here safely. And if her life isn't worth enough to keep you from just shooting me, because honesty, it probably isn't, know I can melt this support beam next to me just as quickly as you can pull the trigger. The whole future of S.H.I.E.L.D gone in a flash. Now that would be a shame."

"Now Miss Devont," Agent McGee called, standing still, but his hand close to the holster. "We don't need to make this messy. Whatever you've done so far can be sorted out, but only if no one gets hurt. You know harming a fellow cadet is punishable by life in the Sandbox, there is no escaping that once you go there."

"Life in the Sandbox, life on the Index, what's the difference?" Delaney spit, but Daisy could hear her voice quake. She was scared, so very scared, and not of everyone else, but of herself. "No, Daisy and I are going, and you're going to let us." Delaney moved towards the hole she created, and no one moved to shoot her. "And I want Fitzsimmons as well, because I can't even remember which one is the obnoxious biochemist."

Daisy went cold at that. Her own life in danger was one thing, but Fitzsimmons could not deal with this. Still, they stepped out of the crowd. "Fitz knows nothing about biochemistry," Jemma called, bravely standing out of the crowd despite her shaking voice. "Leave him and Daisy be. I'll go with you and we can sort this out."

"No!" Delaney called, and every hand crept closer to their gun. "All three of you are coming with me, or the next thing I liquefy will be the whole Academy." Daisy wondered if Delaney actually could do that, and really didn't want to find out. "Walk here slowly." Fitzsimmons did, leaning on each other for support. As selfish as it was Daisy found herself glad that they were in this mess with her. The three of them could fix things. The three of them surely would fix things, that was just what they do. "Good, now we're leaving, and you're all going to stand here until then. If I see a single person come out of this building I will level it."

Daisy tripped over someone's backpack as Delaney pulled them out the hole. Her eyes burned from the sunlight, but Daisy didn't let it faze her. She kept walking as evenly as possible when someone is dragging you, and kept her reassuring eyes on Fitzsimmons. They'd get out of this. They would.


	15. Chapter 15

Delaney brought them to some underground lab that looked as if it hadn't been used since before even Tony was born. Some of the equipment, however, was brand new, and Daisy realized where the powers came from. "You did this to yourself? Why the Hell would you do that?" Daisy hissed as Delaney tied her and Fitz on either side of a beam. Jemma stood at the lab table, looking over a notebook she'd been handed.

"The serum you created is amazing." Only Jemma could be impressed by the science behind this horrible experience. "But it's raised your body temperature. As the enzymes denature your body is trying to reverse the process by releasing the heat, but it's realizing so much so suddenly you're melting things. It's incredible!" Daisy got most of that from her AP Biology days, but had no idea how Jemma could figure it out so quickly. Then again, it was Jemma. "I can design something to stabilize it, but I have no idea how to reverse the serum's effects completely. I'm sorry."

Delaney didn't look too upset. "Just do it, and then I'll disappear and no one will ever see me again."

Jemma set to work, and it was actually odd how relaxed the room was. They all knew Delaney just wanted to be fixed and never seen again. She didn't want to hurt them, and just was pretending to so her fear didn't show. "Why did you do this Delaney?"

"I was trying to recreate the Captain America super serum, okay?" Delaney snapped. "I found some files, tests run on an unknown sample of blood during the time when the SSR unknowingly had Steve Rodgers blood. I made the connection, and tried to recreate it. But I must have messed something up, because, well, I'm destroying everything and not with my strength."

But why? Why would she want to be like Captain America? (Okay, Daisy knew that was a dumb question. Who wouldn't want to be Captain America? "You're second in the class in everything, why do you need powers?"

"To be first!" Delaney screamed at Daisy. "To be first! None of this would ever have happened if you weren't here, so shut up!" Delaney put her hand through a desk, and began sobbing. Daisy didn't know what to do, none of them did, so they just stayed silent.

Jemma was almost done with the serum and Delaney was almost free when the shot rang out. None of them even had a second to realize they'd been found before they heard it. S.H.I.E.L.D didn't even bother giving Delaney another opportunity to turn herself over. They just found a window and let Delaney take a bullet to the head.

Jemma screamed, and as soon as the agents cut them loose, Daisy and Fitz ran to comfort her. She sobbed into Fitz's shoulder as Daisy stared in horror. She'd seen Natasha kill Vanko, but this, this was different. Vanko was trying to hurt people, Delaney just wanted to be the best, and paid for it with her life. She couldn't even drink. She wasn't even old enough to drink. All she'd wanted was to be a good S.H.I.E.L.D Agent, to be the best S.H.I.E.L.D Agent, and she got rewarded for her hard work with a bullet to the head.

Daisy just wanted to go home, and maybe never come back. In a way Delaney's death was all her fault. If Daisy hadn't come to the Academy Delaney would have been on top. She would have had a promising career, not a hole in the ground. It was so fucking wrong, and Daisy felt sick. S.H.I.E.L.D were the good guys, but they didn't even give Delaney a chance to explain. They just killed her.

"Miss Johnson," Agent McGee's voice broke through Daisy's thoughts, pulling her back to the interrogation room. "I need you to tell me what happened after you left the Academy."

Death happened. "Delaney brought us to some underground lab and tied me and Fitz up. She let Jemma be so she could work… Delaney experimented on herself, trying to become a supersoldier so she could be a better agent." Be a better agent. Be better than Daisy. "Jemma figured out where she went wrong and was working on an antidote. Then you found us and kill…" Daisy couldn't get the words out, and shook her head to clear it. "Well you know."

"Miss Johnson," Agent McGee sounded friendlier than Daisy had ever heard before. "Sometimes we get bad seeds people who, while having good intentions, will go to questionable lengths to succeed. What happened today was incredibly sad, but it happens. You move past it, or you become a bad seed too. So move on."

Daisy didn't really move on. Every night she dreamed of Delaney's death, except sometimes she was the one dying. In another life Daisy could have been Delaney. They both just wanted to help people, to be assets. Daisy had no idea what she would have done if Delaney had been on top, but it probably wouldn't have ended differently. Their weren't fine lines in S.H.I.E.L.D, there were invisible ones. Often times you passes them without thinking.

Everyone avoided Daisy over the final two weeks of the year, especially Jemma. Whenever Daisy tried to approach her friend, during Ops or other times, Jemma would duck her head and walk away. Fitz was always Simmons's friend first, and would only tell Daisy that Jemma was 'having a hard time with what she saw, and couldn't stand the reminder.'

Apparently Daisy was just a reminder.

When Daisy packed her stuff up to leave for the summer, she had a mental breakdown. Beneath a year's worth of trash, laundry, and life, Daisy found a picture of Delaney and her mom, left over from their time as roommates probably. Delaney looked so frigging happy, so frigging alive. It just wasn't fair. And so when Jemma showed up at Daisy's door, she found her friend sobbing in the corner, clutching the photo.

"We didn't even like her," Daisy whimpered as Jemma came to sit down as well. "We hated her really. So why does it hurt so much?"

Jemma shook her head. "I don't know, I've been asking myself the same thing."

"It's not just the trauma, of seeing it." Because Daisy had seen someone die before, and it didn't bother her them. "She just didn't deserve it. She just wanted to serve S.H.I.E.L.D and they killed her."

Jemma nodded, having had the same thought a thousand times over the past two weeks. "I came to tell you that I'm submitting my formal withdrawal from the Academy," Jemma whispered shocking Daisy from her tears. "I can't do this. There are other places that can help me find answers to my questions."

"But who will help us find the answers to ours?" It was such a selfish question; one Daisy knew she shouldn't have asked. She just couldn't help herself. How could Jemma just quit and leave after everything? "I'm sorry, that was mean… Is Fitz going as well?"

Jemma took a moment, but she nodded. "It's so weird. I haven't even known him for a year, yet I can't imagine working without him." It was weird, but Daisy totally got it. "I'm sorry, but I can't stay."

"I've thought about quitting too," Daisy admitted. Hell, she had the paperwork lying in her desk, signed and all. "But every time I go to do it I just think about how unfair it would be, to Delaney."

"How so?"

"She died so I could be number one, as messed up as it is. I feel like I should be the best agent possible, to honor the one she would have been if I hadn't come and mucked everything up."

Daisy could see the wheels turning in Jemma's head, and saw the withdrawal forms on her lap. "I've been thinking that being a part of S.H.I.E.L.D was an insult to Delaney, considering they killed her."

If only their lives were that simple. "They took out a threat," Daisy knew how callous it sounded, but it was true. Delaney had gone mad, and her powers were insane. Even if Jemma had stabilized the powers there was nothing they could do about Delaney's mind. "The real Delaney gave her life in the hopes of helping S.H.I.E.L.D. Whenever I think about quitting I think of that, and know I can't be expected to do any less than she did." Daisy wasn't watching Jemma's face as she finished, she was watching the torn pieces of paper


	16. Chapter 16

"Welcome home Daisy," J.A.R.V.I.S chimed as she buzzed through the gate. A couple Iron Man groupies attempted to sneak in with her, but Daisy was strong enough to push them back. She was strong enough to do a lot of things these days.

The house sounded silent, and Daisy wondered if her dad was even home. She should have checked her "where is Iron man" app. When Daisy flipped on the light, the whole house burst alive. Tony. Happy, Pepper, and Rhodey all sprung up from where they hid. Streamers burst out of the rafters. Outside Daisy saw literal fireworks.

"You guys are insane," Daisy laughed, but she was beginning to know how the Grinch's heart could grow three sizes. "Thank you, it will be so nice to sleep in a real bed."

Pepper came over to hug Daisy, and her dad did that arm wrap thing which was just as nice. Rhodey just nodded, which was good, because a hug from Rhodey would have been weird.

They celebrated a little, but then went about their ways. There were companies to run, kittens to save, inventions to be built. Daisy settled back into her life at home over the month of June, and wished she never had to go back to the Academy. You would think living with Iron Man would be as fast-pace and intense as it could get, but for Daisy being home was relaxing.

She got a job at Stark Industries because why not. It was quite difficult to secure, because of course she had no contacts, but she managed it. Within her first week Daisy redid the entire security system and traced down a man who hacked in to steal some blueprints.

She was bored. Everyone thought Stark Industries must be a place of excitement and wonder, and perhaps for many it was, but not for Daisy. She'd seen too much to find excitement in the normal world. Being home was relaxing, it helped Daisy forget about Delaney, but it was boring. By her birthday Daisy was just itching for the summer to pass so she could return to the challenges of the Academy. She felt lost without the goal of being the best Agent, and Daisy had been lost for too long.

Daisy woke up on her birthday, and couldn't help but wonder if she was actually eighteen. She had no way of knowing when her exact birthday was, and it freaked her out. Had she really been an adult for days, or was she not even really one? The law considered her an adult now, but was she really?

She had the same debate every year of course, but it was especially odd this year because she was turning 18. Daisy had felt like an adult for a long time, before she even knew her father probably, but it was different, it being official. She wasn't living at home, but her dad had still legally been responsible for her the past year. Not anymore though… not anymore.

"Your father has your present in the living room," J.A.R.V.I.S informed her almost sounding amused. "And Miss Potts has cooked pancakes."

At least she wasn't aging out of the system today. Daisy tried to imagine what her life would be like if she hadn't found that letter. Would they have really given it to her that day, and would she have tried to follow through on it? And would Tony have even cared the same way when she didn't need a legal guardian? She never would have been in S.H.I.E.L.D, or known Fitzsimmons. Everything would be different.

And if that letter hadn't existed at all. Daisy could have been walking out of the orphanage that day with nothing. She'd find some van to live in probably, end up with a crappy abusive boyfriend, maybe figure out code, but maybe not.

Daisy couldn't imagine that, her life without CS. And she didn't want to. Her life with Tony was good. Sure, they had their struggles. A lot of the time it wasn't good, but Daisy's life was better because of him, and Tony was better because of her. They were both happy. They both had a family. They both had a home. It was remarkably nice.

"Happy birthday!" Pepper and Tony cheered as she made her way into the kitchen. J.A.R.V.I.S was correct of course about the food, so Daisy sat down to eat. She scanned the room, looking for this mentioned present, but only saw the Iron Man suit sitting in the corner of the room as it often did whenever her dad didn't feel like putting it away. Besides that though there was nothing, no wrapping paper, no boxes, nothing. J.A.R.V.I.S had been wrong about the present unless… unless he wasn't.

"No," Daisy whispered looking between her dad and the suit. "You're giving me a suit? Why! You never wanted me to have a suit, that was half the reason I joined S.H.I.E.L.D."

Tony smirked, and plopped some pancake in his mouth. "It's still my suit," he reminded with a pointed look. "But I figured you're an adult now, and you've acted like one long enough that you deserve an award."

Daisy couldn't believe it. She'd begged forever for him to build her a suit, and he refused. Now he was actually letting her use him.

"It will probably be a bit loose, but it should be fine. Have fun. "Don't ruin my reputation. Let Iron Girl exist for a day."

Daisy flung her arms around her dad, hugging him tight. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You're welcome," Tony smiled; glad to see his daughter truly happy. "Now go."

Daisy walked over to the suit, and opened it easily. She knew how it worked; she knew everything about it. "I love you," Daisy's voice sounded so odd through the suit, but still like her own. "I promise I'll bring her back unscratched." And she took off through the open roof.

Flying in the suit was actually harder than Tony made it look. Daisy finally understood all the banging she'd heard when Tony first built it. Luckily Daisy was a quick learner, and had J.A.R.V.I.S offering pointers in her ear.

Once she caught on to the fantastic feeling of flying, Daisy asked J.A.R.V.I.S to turn on the police scanner, unsure how else she was going to find hero things to do. She realized she wasn't ever sure how her father found those impossible situations he always ended up solving. Iron Man was the deus ex machina for many hopeless people, but today Daisy got to be that. Perhaps most people didn't want to spend their birthday working, but Daisy for one day had the best job.

"We've got a 484 and 417 and likely a 136 at the Third Municipal Bank," Daisy heard as she relished the thrill of literally flying. (She wouldn't bother describing it. Flying on your own, even with a suit to support you, it's like living a full life every single moment- there is some discomfort, lots of joy, and just a sense of fullness. "All available units head that way." Daisy didn't know what the police codes meant, but did a flip in the air to go and help.

"Daisy, you realize that is an armed robbery," J.A.R.V.I.S informed her. "Perhaps that is a bit much for your first time out."

Her dad's 'first time out' involved escaping from terrorists; she'd be fine. Besides, he did stuff like this all the time. The gunman would probably wet himself and run away when he saw Iron Man.

He did. Daisy didn't even have to open her mouth and make a snarky Stark comment for him to drop the gun and begin to cry. Iron Man was a force to be reckoned with, and everyone knew it.

The hostages were a bit rattled, but no one had gotten hurt. Daisy was about to leave when she heard crying and noticed a little girl sitting on the ground while her mother stood off to the side talking to police.

"Hey, you're safe now, okay? The bad man is going to jail, and he can't hurt you," Daisy told her, and the little girl looked up in wonder.

"You don't sound like a man," she squeaked out.

Daisy had somehow forgotten that she was in her dad's suit. "That's because I'm not," she admitted lifting the mask. The girl's eyes grew a million sizes, and Daisy put her finger to her lips. "But don't tell anyone, okay? It's a secret. You look like the kind of girl who can keep secrets right?" The girl bobbed her head frantically. "Good, I thought so."

"How can you be a superhero if you're a girl?"

Daisy wondered for a second if she shouldn't have pushed harder to be Iron Girl. Still, she felt like S.H.I.E.L.D made heroes too… just look at Natasha. "Let me tell you another secret since you're so good at keeping them. There are actually a lot of girl superheroes, but we're not like the guys. We don't need anyone to thank us so we do it in secret. There's Iron Girl, and Black Widow and…" Daisy tried to think up with a cool superhero name for Jemma and panicked. "The Doctor." Well, Jemma would approve surely, and she was a doctor. "We just stay secret, okay?"

"I won't tell a soul," the little girl promised sticking out her pinky. "Bye Iron Girl! Tell your friends I said I'm going to be a secret superhero too!"

Daisy couldn't help but wonder if the real good she did at that bank wasn't saving the little girl, but giving her someone to look up to. If every little girl grew up to be a hero, super or not, the world would be a much better place.

Iron Girl took back to the sky, feeling elated. The Academy was training and hard work to do some good. Today Daisy was actually doing it. A part of her wishes this could always be her life, but it was better that it wasn't. The world already had one Stark flying around scaring people shitless; it could use Daisy as a secret superhero.

Still, for one day it was the best gig ever.


	17. Chapter 17

Pepper was sad to see Daisy return to the Academy in September, but Tony wasn’t. It wasn’t that he didn’t like having Daisy around, he did, but it was that he knew Daisy wanted to go back to school. She was too restless working at a desk tracing down hacks and mindlessly doing some of her own. She was really too skilled to work at Stark Industries, which was just plain ironic, but true.   
And she missed Fitzsimmons. Daisy hadn’t even realized how much she relied on her friends while at the Academy. The three of them had seen some pretty terrible stuff together, but they’d been together. Most people would feel like a third wheel to two people as close as them, but not Daisy. They were there for her when she needed them, but they also had each other and didn’t need to be around Daisy 24/7. They were there, and they gave her space. It was perfect, and Daisy truly missed them.  
They didn’t give Daisy a roommate. Maybe they thought her bad roomie skills were responsible for Delaney becoming a mess. Or maybe they just had enough rooms for the second year students to all have singles. Daisy didn’t really talk to her fellow Coms students, so she didn’t know.   
The schedule which Daisy had been emailed was what really confused her. Computer Science for S.H.I.E.L.D Reconnaissance at the Communications Academy made sense enough. So did the Sci-tech/ Coms Operations class at the Communications Academy. What didn’t make sense was her third class. Luckily they hadn’t insisted on Daisy doing engineering again. She’d gotten by last year with Fitz’s help, but her skills obviously lay with software. Yet they still hadn’t given her the normal Coms curriculum. No, it appeared she was enrolled in Female Operations at the Operations Academy.  
It made no sense. No one but Operations students were supposed to be there. That was why them breaking in last year had been such a big deal! Communications cadets did not go and take classes at the Operations Academy. They just didn’t. If they thought Daisy already knew too much CS to take classes in that, fine, but why Operations? It was almost like they were prepping her for being a field agent, but Communications cadets were never really field agents. Maybe they sometimes ended up in the field, but of all the three divisions they were the most likely to end up behind a desk for the rest of their lives.  
But wasn’t that what Daisy had been so bored doing all summer? She hadn’t even thought about it, but it was. All her interesting moments at the Academy could be traced back to things field agents did, not techies. Daisy was a Coms student because those were her skills, but she liked operations a lot. It appeared whoever designed her schedule knew that.  
They had combined Ops first thing the next morning, and Daisy was a little worried. She’d run miles every day, trained in the gym with Happy and done everything she could think of to stay in shape, but it wouldn’t be enough. Maybe it would be enough for this Ops class considering it was the nerds Ops class, but she’d definitely die over at the Operations Academy. And it was a class with second years, second years who had a year of much more intense training than Daisy ever did, oh for joy!  
“Daisy!” Jemma’s voice flooded the gym as she ran over to hug her friend. “I missed you so much! Fitz and I were just saying that you have to come with us next summer instead of going back to your dads. You’d love England!” Daisy imagined she would, and would talk to her dad about maybe going. Surely he wouldn’t object, he rarely did. And even if he did Daisy could probably go anyway; her job over the summer wasn’t exactly paying minimum wage and she was an adult now.  
“I’d love to,” Daisy promised hugging Fitz despite his weak protests. “Were your breaks good?”  
Jemma started rattling off about her work in some lab at Oxford, and Daisy just pretended to understand. She understood that Jemma enjoyed it, and that was really enough. “It’s so good to be back though,” Jemma finally finished, breathing for what seemed to be the first time. “I can’t believe I was going to quit.”  
Daisy was glad that Jemma was completely past that. Delaney’s death would probably haunt them all forever, but that was a part of being a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. They just had to learn to cope with the ghosts, and they were.   
“I’m glad you stayed,” Daisy smiled back. “So something weird has already happened. I got my schedule last night and…” Daisy cut off as an arrow planted itself in her backpack. She pulled it out quickly, ready to fight, but the shooter was nowhere to be seen. Everyone looked around scared, but it was Daisy who caught sight of him, sitting in the rafters where he’d probably been before any of them walked into the room. “Relax everyone; it’s just our new instructor.”  
No one really relaxed except for Daisy as Clint rappelled down towards them. “Actually your instructor is some boring 4th year Ops Cadet who is late getting back from a summer in Sokovia,” Clint corrected winking at Daisy. “I lost a bet with Director Fury and am here as a temporary replacement until your real instructor gets back. I’m Agent Clint Barton. You’re supposed to be doing basic strength training to get you back in shape from the break, but I think that’s boring. Instead I’m going to teach you all to use a bow, and we’ll see just how much strength you have.”  
One of her foster homes once paid for Daisy to go to summer camp, and so she’d shot a bow and arrow before. But those were crappy ones, designed for kids, not to be used as weapons. The strings on the ones Clint handed them were pulled incredibly tight, and Daisy had to struggle every step of the way to pull it back. Fitz couldn’t even manage it at all, and he was part of the majority. And getting the string back was only one step. The targets were set up on a moving rack, and hitting them from 100 yards back would make Olympians sweat. Clint of course could do it without looking, but he shouldn’t count.   
“I’m from Ohio, by the way.” Daisy had absolutely no idea what Clint was talking about when he came over to watch her (abysmal) work. “Nat, she said you lied to her last year.” Daisy had almost completely forgotten about that, but smiled at the thought. “Which was impressive by the way. It took her months to figure out how you did it, and she certainly thought about it often. She asked you where the enhanced man was from and you said you didn’t know. You were answering for me though, weren’t you, not Thor?”  
Daisy smirked, and her arrow actually hit the target. (Though not the center.) “I have no idea what you’re talking about Agent Barton.”  
“Of course not, Miss Johnson,” Clint’s voice was always so sarcastic, and Daisy loved it. “Lift your back arm. It hurts to hold up, but you’re bent which makes the arrow bend. Keep yourself flat and just let it fly. Don’t over think it.” Daisy was one of the few Cadets who didn’t over think things, and it contributed largely to her success. So, without thinking, Daisy followed Clint’s instructions, and the arrow flew straight.


	18. Chapter 18

It was weird going in the front door of the Operations Academy. Her fingerprint let her in, the same way it did at the other schools, but it was different. The whole place was colder than the other Academies. She remembered the friends she saw talking last year, and that they were really on guard. They were students in the other divisions. Here… here they were really and truly cadets.  
A couple people recognized her from the Delaney fiasco and stared, but Daisy for the most part found the right gym without trouble. She said the right gym because that seemed to be all the campus was made up of, training facilities. Again, it made sense, but was thoroughly disconcerting.  
A half dozen female cadets looked up when Daisy entered the room. “The first year Ops class is in Gym D, not B,” one of them informed gruffly.  
“She’s not a first year,” another one realized eyes wide. “She’s a Coms student. What is she doing here?”  
“She has a name,” Daisy remarked, and she couldn’t help but think about Delaney. Hopefully these girls would meet a better fate. “And I’m here because my schedule told me to be.”  
One of the girls, the smallest who Daisy suspected was probably the most ferocious, spoke up. “But Coms students don’t just get to take classes here. What did you do to get in?”  
Daisy wasn’t sure. She’d done a lot of things most of her Coms classmates wouldn’t dream of just because of her dad. Daisy’s Academy experience was noteworthy for the sheer fact of none of the rules applying to her. “I guess whoever writes our schedules decided to experiment and make me the guinea pig.”  
“It wasn’t whoever wrote your schedule, Miss Johnson.” Everything made sense now that Natasha had appeared. “It was me. Director Fury thinks it’s time I take a little break from continuous fieldwork; give Eastern Europe a chance to settle down.” Daisy didn’t even want to know what that meant. “He asked me to teach a class for the most promising female cadets, and I made sure you were on the roster.”  
“But she’s not even training to be a Field Agent!”   
Daisy was so tired of people telling her not to do stuff. “Look, Agent Romanoff requested me for this class because while I might not be on the path of a specialist I have field experience. If you have a problem with taking this class with me I’m sure your schedule can be changed.”  
That shut them right up, and Natasha didn’t even attempt to hide her smirk. “Good then. Now, have any of you ever done Russian pointe ballet?”  
Of the seven girls in the class at the beginning of the period, only four were there at the end. The first two refused to do something as pointless as ballet when they were training to be agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Daisy almost felt bad for them. They’d worked so hard to be tough like men to survive in Operations that they held a distain for anything feminine, and they lost out on an opportunity to study with the literal Black Widow. (Not that they knew that was Agent Romanoff’s other identity.)  
The other two Natasha kicked out after discovering they couldn’t keep time properly. They, of course, freaked because when did a S.H.I.E.L.D Agent need to be able to dance? Natasha insisted that a female Agent was almost always in a position where she needed to dance, and that even if they weren’t they could not succeed in her Operations class unless they could do ballet.  
And so it was only Sherra Lafett, who looked as dangerous as her dark skin was beautiful, the youngest girl, Emma Williams, a tall girl who’d done ballet as a child named Renee Mire, and Daisy. The four of them danced for hours with Natasha, exhausted by the end, but feeling as if somehow this would help them be better agents.   
“Daisy, can I talk to you?” Natasha called once they finally finished rub downs. The other girls filtered out, far nicer to Daisy now than they had been in the beginning, and Daisy went to face Natasha. “You aren’t upset about being in this class, right?”  
How could Natasha even think that? “No, I’m glad you’d give me this opportunity. I mean I know I’m part of Coms, and I like the computer stuff, really, but sitting at a desk… well stuff like this makes it so when I need to do an on-sight hack I’m prepared.”  
“I’m glad,” Natasha replied proud to see how far Daisy had come from the girl she met over a year ago. “Ballet… it probably seems unconnected to fighting but…”  
Daisy actually had the nerve to cut Natasha off. “No, I actually can see how it would be connected. I mean I’ve seen you fight, and it’s like a dance. Plus you learned fighting the same time you learned dance so…”  
“How do you know about that?”  
Daisy bit her lip, remembering that she wasn’t supposed to know that. Hell, she wasn’t even really supposed to know Natasha was Black Widow. “Back when we first met, while my dad was working on getting something to replace the palladium I didn’t have much to do. I’d just found out your real name, and wanted to know whether or not I could trust you. So I hacked S.H.I.E.L.D. Most of it is redacted, grant you, but it led me to sources which led me to sources. I read about the Black Widow program, and Natalia Romanova, one of the girls who died when the program was eliminated.”  
Daisy always assumed that nothing could faze Natasha, nothing could make her lose it, but she was wrong. Natasha tossed Daisy to the ground, and pulled a gun on the younger girl. “Not even Nick Fury knows that name, and you have no idea who she was. Luckily for the world Natalia died with everyone else in the Red Room. Lucky for you she’s not around to kill you.” Natasha put away the gun, and helped Daisy to her feet. “Never mention any of that again, understood?”  
The bruise on Daisy’s back answered for her, but Daisy spoke. “I’m sorry for upsetting you, Agent Romanoff. I shouldn’t have read about that stuff in the first place, never mind bring it up.”  
“No, you shouldn’t have been able to read about it,” the Agent agreed packing her own ballet shoes into a box. “But the fact that you did is why you’re in my class. And it’s Natasha Daisy, it’s always been Natasha.”


	19. Chapter 19

Natasha must have mentioned something to someone, because Agent McGee called Daisy to his office the next day. She worried for a second about being in trouble, and she kind of was for hacking S.H.I.E.L.D, but Agent McGee also requested that she take on the project of encrypting all of S.H.I.E.L.D's files. As he put it "It's becoming increasingly clear that you are the best at hacking, so hopefully you can figure out what anyone else might do to get in."

The only thing was that that meant Daisy had access to every single unredacted file. The files would never be safe if they weren't encrypted by someone (IE Daisy), but that required letting those files not be safe from whoever was encrypting them.

Daisy felt the temptation to read all of them, but she resisted. She reasoned that she always had access to the files because she was so good at hacking and that she hadn't read them then so there was no reason to now. Still, the idea hadn't crossed Daisy's mind then, and it sure as Hell did now.

Which was why the first thing she did was ensure that she couldn't access them. She knew that the temptation was too great. She knew if she didn't put in the protocol and plug in Fury's fingerprint as the only one who could give Daisy access then she would read stuff she wasn't supposed to. Stuff was classified a lot of the time for sanity's sake more than secrecy's, and Daisy had to respect that.

The only files Daisy didn't restrict herself from were the ones about her family. She was curious what S.H.I.E.L.D had on her and her dad, and perhaps the files would help her get to know her grandparents some. Tony hated talking about them, and so Daisy figured this was a perfectly reasonable way to learn about her family without upsetting her dad. It was fair.

And it was certainly fair to read her own file. It wasn't like there could be something in there that she didn't know about.

Howard's file was long. Daisy imagined it would take years to read every single mission report he'd ever written. She got far enough in to realize that yes he really had known Captain America and founded S.H.I.E.L.D and gave up. He seemed like a good guy; Daisy didn't want to read anything that might change that.

Tony's file was much shorter. She wasn't surprised to find out that they'd planned on recruiting Tony for the Academy after he graduated from MIT. She was surprised to find that Howard had forbidden it. By that point he wasn't in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D of course, but his word held sway, and so Tony never knew of his place at Sci-Tech.

Daisy tried to imagine her dad at the Academy, and found it a laughable thought. He was a genius, but not a geek. He'd never have fit in at Sci-Tech where the word party was undefined. Plus, if he'd gone to the Academy Daisy would never have existed. He couldn't have met her mom if he was at the Academy instead of in China. Him not being a part of S.H.I.E.L.D was the reason Daisy was born. Now that, that was an odd thought.

She looked at her own file last, imaging she would already knew everything in it. Scanning it quickly and she did. It included a copy of the voluntary paternity form Tony signed, and a newspaper article about the event. The next thing in it was Coulson's report on the whole Obadiah thing, then Natasha's report on the stuff with Vanko and the recommendation for Daisy to be admitted to the Academy. She also found her grades from kindergarten on, and was shocked by what a terrible student she'd been. How had she let herself achieve so little? How had meeting her dad changed everything so much? It was hard to believe really.

There were a few more items in her file: a report on the whole Thor thing, her report about breaking into Ops, a synopsis of the issue with Delaney, and the form Natasha used to request Daisy be in her class.

She was about to close it and actually do the encrypting she was supposed to when a little footnote caught her eye. Possible connection to Hunan 0-8-4.

It was only classification level 3, so Daisy hadn't bothered blocking it from herself. She'd likely graduate from the Academy at least a level 3. The Avengers and Thor were both level 6 and Daisy knew about them. No, it was the 5, 6, 7, 8 Daisy had to stop herself from reading. Something like this, well Daisy never imagined she'd want to read it.

She didn't want to read it. As words like 'dismembered mother' and 'homicidal step-father' passed through Daisy's head she knew she really didn't want to read on, and yet she did.

The 0-8-4 has been placed in the care of the nuns of St. Agnes Orphan as per the mother's letter. It is unsure why the mother did not just place the child in the stepfather's care, and is possible that the mother suspected her husband's instability. More research into subject is unadvised. It is advised to keep the 0-8-4 moving to avoid detection of step-father though it is unsure whether or not he cares for her the way he did the mother.

Case partially resolved, no immediate action suggested.

Daisy felt ready to be sick. She'd seen people die before, but reading about her mother, her own mother being dissected like a frog… it set her over the edge. And this step-father, the one who'd butchered Daisy's whole town after her mother died, what of him? S.H.I.E.L.D seemed to think he was a threat, that he might come for Daisy, but obviously that wasn't the case. She'd been very public as Daisy Stark; he could have found her. Unless he didn't know of her… unless he had no idea that his step-daughter was Daisy Stark.

Daisy tried to convince herself that this wasn't necessarily real. There were no names in the report, and it had only been listed as a possible connection to Daisy, not a certainty.

But there was one way to know for certain. One call Daisy could make and know if she was this child. This 0-8-4. She didn't even understand how a child could be an 0-8-4. That was S.H.I.E.L.D code for an object of unknown origin, but everyone knew where babies came from. Tony has insisted on giving Daisy the talk despite her already knowing everything from the internet; she knew where babies came from. So how could a baby be an 0-8-4?

None of it made sense to Daisy, but she knew it certainly wouldn't make sense if she didn't make the call.

"Hey Daisy, you settling in well?" Tony asked as he picked up the phone. Daisy went to ask, but the words got caught in her throat. "Daisy, are you there?"

"I'm here," Daisy replied, her voice hoarse. She'd been crying and hadn't even realized it. "I'm here Dad."

"Daisy are you alright? You sound upset."

Of course Daisy was upset, upset and stalling because if she asked then she'd get an answer, and if she got an answer she wouldn't be able to forget it. "My mom, was she, was she from the Hunan province? Do you know if she was she remarried?"

"I don't know if she was married but yes, I think that was where she lived, where you were born. Why? What is this about?"

Daisy didn't answer him; she just hung up and cried.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 43  
Iron Man couldn’t get into the S.H.I.E.L.D Academy, but everyone saw him trying. When Daisy hadn’t answered her phone, and Tony wasn’t sure what the hell was going on he’d flown to the Academy and wasn’t leaving until Daisy talked to him. Or so Agent McGee said as he passed on the intruder’s message.  
“Can’t you just tell him I’m alive but just want to be left alone?” Daisy whined, but she crawled out from where she’d been hiding under the covers, and threw on a bra. She knew her dad wouldn’t leave until he was 100% sure Daisy was okay, which meant he might never leave because Daisy wasn’t even sure she was 100% okay.  
She wasn’t normal. She didn’t know why, she didn’t know in what way, but Daisy knew there was something abnormal about her. That was why she’d been marked an 0-8-4.  
Her mother was dead. Daisy had known this one for years now, but it was different, reading about it, knowing that she not only predicted her gruesome death but lived it. She was kidnapped and torn to shreds in Austria, over four thousand miles from her home.   
Her stepfather was insane. The fact that she even had a stepfather was news enough, but that he’d killed dozens of S.H.I.E.L.D agents-that hurt. Daisy had probably seen their names on the Wall of Valor. She’d walked past their names a thousand times never knowing that she was the reason they were up there and not living their lives. They were dead because of her, and her insane stepfather who may or may not be looking for her.  
And S.H.I.E.L.D knew about this all along. Maybe every S.H.I.E.L.D agent she’d met hadn’t known. Maybe Coulson didn’t do all his reading before contacting Tony. Maybe Natasha never thought to look in Daisy’s file. But S.H.I.E.L.D as a whole knew, and no one had ever mentioned it to Daisy. No one ever saw fit to tell her that S.H.I.E.L.D, the organization founded by her grandfather, was there in the beginning of her life, even when she was on the opposite side of the world from her real father.  
It was all too much for Daisy to process. She wanted to sleep and then hit things, not talk to her dad. But he was only here because he tried to be a good father and was worried. It wouldn’t be fair for her to blow him off just because her whole world was collapsing around her.  
Tony was sitting in Agent McGee’s office, the suit gone. When Daisy entered color returned to his face, and he hugged her tight. “You’re alive. I thought they’d killed you or something.”  
He really distrusted S.H.I.E.L.D more than reasonable considering they saved both their lives multiple times. “I’m fine dad, I promise. You didn’t need to fly here because I hung up on you.” His look said he did, and Daisy even managed a smile. “I was just upset. I can’t really explain to you the details, okay, not here. I’ll explain when I come home for Thanksgiving, by then I’ll be ready to talk about it probably.”  
“It hasn’t been a week,” Tony reminded her, running his hand through her newly cut hair. “And yet you look decades older. Are you sure you’re okay? You can come home if you want, I won’t hold it against you.”  
As much as he understood that Daisy needed to be a part of S.H.I.E.L.D he really didn’t like it still, and Daisy found it amusing. “No, I’m here. I need to be here Dad… what I read today just proves that.” She had to be here to honor all those who died because of her. If her life was in vain then so were their deaths. “I just need some time to think, okay? I’m fine, so just go home.”  
Tony could see his daughter wasn’t really okay, but there was clearly nothing he could do to fix things. She wasn’t broken, she was just a bit bruised, and hopefully she’d heal on her own. “Fine, I’m heading to New York to check up on the tower’s construction. If you need me I’ll be here in a heartbeat.”   
He could be on the other side of the world and if Daisy needed him he’d come. Perhaps he wasn’t a typical father, but he loved her and protected her more than many fathers did. Daisy knew that and thought it was wonderful. “I’ll call if I need you, now go, please, and don’t come to school again before people start asking questions.”  
“Yes Miss Johnson,” Tony smirked as Agent McGee entered the room to escort him out. “I’ll be waiting to hear from you.” And Daisy would call him, later, once her heart stopped feeling as if it was going to break.  
In all reality talking to Tony helped Daisy. He’d unknowingly forced her to get out of her funk, and up and about Daisy felt alive again. Still, she was upset. How could she not be upset knowing what she knew? So Daisy did the natural thing; she went to the gym and beat things up.  
Daisy was drenched in sweat by the time she was done, but she felt better. She was going to be a S.H.I.E.L.D agent so good and so devoted that all those who died for her weren’t gone in vain. She was going to make them all proud.  
On her way back to her room, Daisy stopped by the wall of valor. The names in the report were burned in her mind and she found them etched side by side on the wall. They should have been alive, maybe retiring, maybe senior agents, but alive. But they weren’t and nothing Daisy did would change that. They’d died so she could live, and so she’d live. She wouldn’t let their deaths control her; she’d keep pushing on.   
Daisy walked back to her room to finish the encryptions she was supposed to be doing in the first place. She would be an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D if it killed her, which, sadly, was quite a realistic possibility. But Daisy was okay with that. S.H.I.E.L.D Agents had died so she could grow up and be a S.H.I.E.L.D Agent herself, it would only be fair for her to give just as much to S.H.I.E.L.D as they did.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SO SO SO SORRY! SOMEHOW THIS CHAPTER NEVER POSTED AND THEN THE NEXT CHAPTER MADE NO SENSE! I'M SO SORRY

The first half of Daisy's second year was both miserable and exhilarating. While the two classes she took at Coms were easy as pie, Daisy found herself struggling every day in Natasha's class, and she loved it. Every day they danced, and every day they fought, and every day they learned. Natasha seemingly knew everything about being a female operative, and she was surprisingly good at teaching. Daisy wondered if she'd taught this same curriculum to younger girls in the Red Room, but of course never asked. She had been stupid for bringing it up the first time, and Daisy wasn't one to be stupid twice.

The only days Daisy didn't enjoy that class were the ones when Natasha wasn't teaching it. Despite her being officially on temporary field leave there were many days when Natasha was invading some country and not teaching them. On those days the four of them just danced, and while Daisy found herself enjoying the complexities of ballet it were the skills only Natasha could teach that she really enjoyed.

And so the first half of the year passed without incident. Daisy never forgot what she read, but she used it to focus her determination the same way she'd used Delaney. The people who'd died were reason to fight on, and Daisy never forgot it.

She'd never ended up telling Tony at Thanksgiving, and he didn't ask. He understood that she'd bring it up if she wanted to tell him, and she didn't bring it up. Daisy didn't feel like telling him about how horribly Ji-Ying had died. She might be Daisy's mom, but Tony was the one who really knew her. It would be hard to know that she died in pain. Daisy didn't want to put that on him. He protected her; she could do the same thing for him.

On the 23rd Tony had to go into the office, and of course left his wallet at home. Daisy wasn't sure why he even needed his wallet, but she agreed to go bring it to him. She hadn't been to Stark Industries since the summer ended, and found herself wandering about to see what new projects were being worked on.

"Oh sorry Miss I didn't see you there," a familiar voice apologized after ramming into Daisy. Daisy helped pick up the girl's notebooks, and stared in shock when their eyes met. It was Jemma.

"Oh, Daisy, there you are I thought you were bringing me my wallet," Tony called from behind them, and Daisy stared at horror. Why was Jemma working at Stark Industries? Why did her dad have to show up in that exact moment? "Oh, I see you met our new Biochemist. Where's your little engineer friend?"

"Oh, Michael?" Jemma replied looking panicked and unsure. Daisy didn't blame her; she was unsure as well. "Um, he's with the others. I was just grabbing some notebooks, sir."

Tony nodded, "Say Daisy, why don't you go and meet those others. Miss Duke here is part of a team Pepper and I put together. They're young, but almost as brilliant as you." Daisy blushed, and Tony smiled. "Oh, but give me my wallet first."

Daisy handed it over, her hands shaking. Why were Jemma and presumably Fitz undercover at Stark Industries? If S.H.I.E.L.D wanted to know what was happening there why not just ask Daisy? Unless they thought there was something going on she wouldn't tell them about to protect her dad.

"I'll see you at home," Tony waved as he went back to whatever he was doing and left Daisy to face the music.

"I can explain," Daisy whispered studying Jemma's face and knowing she was pissed. "I wanted to tell you, but there was just never a good time."

Jemma didn't believe that. She was too smart to believe that. "You had a year Daisy. We've known you for over a year, and all you ever said was that your mom was dead and your dad works a lot."

"Well it's true!"

"Your dad is Tony Stark Daisy," Jemma had never sounded so mad in all the time Daisy knew her. "You worked at Stark Industries this summer because your dad is Tony Stark. That's how you know so many people in S.H.I.E.L.D, your grandfather founded it!"

Daisy felt like Jemma's personal punching bag, and knew she deserved it. "I'm sorry, okay? It wasn't that I didn't trust you it was that I didn't want you looking at me like that. I didn't want to just be Iron Man's daughter, I wanted to be my own person."

"Well you succeeded at that," Jemma spit back. "And the person you defined yourself as is a liar."

Daisy had imagined Fitz would react the worse, never Jemma. Jemma was always so nice. "I tried to tell you so many times, but I just couldn't. I'm sorry, don't hate me."

"I don't hate you Daisy," Jemma softened, sounding more like herself. "But I'm upset. And Fitz will be too!"

Daisy felt like going home and crawling in bed, but she nodded. "And you both should be angry. You were my friends and I didn't tell you. Just… just let me go with you so I can explain myself. I want to be able to tell him sorry."

"Of course, just so you know there are a few other Sci-tech kids with us." Oh great. Fitzsimmons, as angry as they might be wouldn't tell the whole school about Daisy's other life, but these other kids would. So much for Daisy Johnson, by the time school started again everyone would know she was really just a lying version of Daisy Stark.

Tony must have really believed in them because he set them up in a private lab. Daisy saw Fitz working with another engineering student, Tom Mecellen, and Aubrey Spencer, a physicist if Daisy remembered right, was working on one of the computers. None of them looked up when Daisy and Jemma entered, so Daisy just made her way over to Fitz as quietly as she could.

"Oh Jemma, I've been working on this…"

"You shouldn't use her real name, my dad has cameras everywhere."

Fitz looked up at that, and stared at Daisy his super-brain working fast. "Daisy? What are you doing here? And what do you mean your dad? I didn't know he worked here. I didn't even know you still worked here."

Fitz was brilliant, but also way too trusting for a future spy scientist. "Fitz, I don't still work here. I'm here because my dad asked me to bring him his wallet and he works here."

"Why does Jemma look so upset then?"

"Because she just met my dad… and he's your boss… Fitz, I don't know how to say this but, well I've been lying to you. My dad and I actually do get along, and well he's kinda Tony Stark." Honestly Daisy hated the way it came out, but there was no better way to say it. She was a liar. Her dad was Tony Stark. That was about it. "Look, I'm really sorry for lying to you I just didn't…"

"You didn't want people thinking you were only at the Academy because of your dad, yeah I get it." Wait, what? Jemma was mad and Fitz wasn't? Daisy had expected the opposite. Then again, Daisy was never quite sure what would upset Fitz and what wouldn't. "That was why we met, because they put you in engineering since he's good at it and they wanted you to be as well."

Daisy nodded, glad that he was being so understanding, despite being confused by the same thing. "You're not mad?'

"I wish you'd told me, yeah," Fitz replied working without taking a second to stop and look at her. "But I get why you wouldn't. You were afraid. I've lied to friends before because I was afraid, so I'm not mad."

Daisy was glad for that. Fitz not being upset seemed to make Jemma relax as well. "And yes, I just said I'm Tony Stark's daughter, so you can go and tell everyone at the Academy that I'm only the top of the class because of favoritism or whatever," Daisy told Tom and Aubrey who'd obviously been listening in. "I don't even care at this point. It's good to not have to lie anymore." Tom and Aubrey didn't say anything. It's hard to know what to say when you're called out like that. "Why are you here though? I don't understand."

Jemma paled. "Look, Daisy, we didn't know he was your dad… and I don't want you to find out this way but… Well S.H.I.E.L.D thinks he's building an army of suits."

"He is," Daisy replied with a laugh. It wasn't exactly a secret mission to take over the earth. S.H.I.E.L.D could have just asked her and she would have gladly said so. "It's called the Iron legion. Hell, I suggested it myself after seeing Vanko try to do it."

Jemma and Fitz exchanged a look. "Why did you tell your dad to built an army of drones?"

"Well it's too few to really be an army, but look my dad has control of them. There isn't much he can't do with one suit that he can do with a half dozen, so it's no big deal." Jemma and Fitz didn't seem to think so, but they trusted Daisy despite just having discovered her huge lie. "Look, who told you to come here, was it Agent Weever? Because I'll call her right now and tell her that if S.H.I.E.L.D wants to know what Stark Industries is doing they can either just ask me or make an appointment to see themselves. We have nothing to hide."

Daisy hadn't meant for it to come out so defensive, but it did. Why did people think her dad was going to do something evil? He was a hero, and S.H.I.E.L.D knew that. Just because they didn't want him to be an Avenger that didn't make him any less of a hero. He was just a hero who worked alone.

Fitz finally was the one to respond. "I'll call her."

"Hi, Agent Weever?" Daisy said once the woman picked up the phone. "It's Daisy Stark. Look, yes my dad is building drones, but they're just designed to help him protect people. You're welcome to continue sending agents to infiltrate us, but perhaps they shouldn't be ones I've gone to school with for two years."

"S.H.I.E.L.D has complete faith in your father as Iron Man," Agent Weever responded sounding amused. "What we were unsure of was how you and the others would respond to the situation." Holy shit it was a test and Daisy was pretty sure she'd just failed. "An undercover agent might come across another undercover agent in the field, and both have to respond appropriately."

Daisy felt like hitting her head against a wall. She'd failed. She should have just gone on with her cover and not told the truth.

No, that wasn't fair. Fitzsimmons knew they were on a mission, Daisy didn't. Daisy was supposed to be on break. It was unfair for them to judge her based on that.

But still she shouldn't have responded as she did. An agent was always an agent even when not on duty. She could run into Coulson in a coffee shop and if he was undercover she'd get him killed by talking to him. Daisy should have known better.

"We're probably all failing Ops right about now," Daisy sighed hanging up the phone and handing it back to Fitz. "But come on, you're coming to meet my dad."

Tony was impressed by Fitzsimmons. (Aubrey and Tom left to go celebrate Christmas with their families.) "Why do I keep hiring S.H.I.E.L.D agents?" Tony asked Daisy that night as they decorated the tree. "Are you just secretly everywhere?"

Well kinda. That was sorta the point. "You're just attracted to our exceptional skills, that's all."

Tony chuckled at that, but didn't deny it. "So are they on the next plane home now that you ruined their covers?"

Look at him using all the fancy S.H.I.E.L.D terminology. Daisy was so proud. "I actually think they're not going home. They're at a hotel I think."

"You're letting your only friends spend Christmas in a hotel?" Tony rebuked as if he hadn't spent a dozen Christmases alone in hotel rooms. (Okay, he was probably never alone, but Daisy still didn't like to think about that.) "Invite them over, Pepper and Rhodey will be glad to meet them."

Yeah but would they be glad to meet Pepper and Rhodey? Daisy wasn't sure, but she did feel bad not offering. "Daisy?"

"Hey," she replied once Fitz answered the phone. "So, I figured you might as well finish your mission and see the Iron Legion yourself. And my dad wants you and Jemma to come over for Christmas if you're not going home."

"You want me to have Christmas with Tony Stark?" Fitz idolized the brilliant engineer, and Daisy could hear it in his voice.

"Actually I want you to spend Christmas with my family," Daisy admitted glad that her S.H.I.E.L.D family could get to know her real family. "But yeah, I guess that includes watching Tony Stark cut a turkey."

Fitz didn't reply, but Daisy heard him call to Jemma, "Come on, we're going to Daisy's," and she'd never been happier to fail a test.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1-3-16 I added the chapter that I somehow forgot. I'm so sorry about that.

Daisy's grade didn't really suffer because of the incident, but her thighs did. While everyone else worked on Swan Lake Natasha made Daisy do squats, for two hours. She felt like dying in the end, and when she said so aloud Natasha just gave that look and said "Good because in a real situation that would be exactly what happened to your friends."

Yeah, Nat could be real sweet when she wanted to be.

Still life went on. Jemma was wary of Daisy at first, but their bond quickly healed stronger than ever. Daisy was still exceptional at all her classes but Natasha's, and surviving in that one. Everything was good.

Until the day she walked back from Ops class to find a half dozen S.H.I.E.L.D agents with their guns pointed at her. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Put your hands up Stark," one of them, who looked as if he could still be a cadet, demanded. "We don't want to shoot you but if you move we will."

A part of Daisy wanted to comment that if she put her hands up that was moving, but she was too confused to be snarky. "Okay, okay, I'm putting my hands up. Can I know what I did that I'm about to get shot for?"

"You were tasked with encrypting S.H.I.E.L.D files and read them." Oh shit Daisy was in trouble. "You're to be brought to the Sandbox for questioning."

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

Daisy cooperated with the agent, allowing them to cuff her. When they tried to bag her head though she couldn't help yourself. "I thought I read all of S.H.I.E.L.D's classified files. Doesn't that mean I already know where the Sandbox is?" They still bagged her, and 'accidentally' elbowed her while doing it.

The interrogation room they left Daisy in was simple, and she thought of a million ways she could escape. She had a bobby pin on her bra she could use to open her cuffs, and their metal would be a dangerous weapon to whoever opened the door next. She could grab that agent's gun an badge, keep her head down enough to make it out of the facility without having to shoot too many people.

Daisy could escape and she knew it, but she made no move to try to. She was actually guilty of the crime she'd committed. She'd confess to the files she read, swore she hadn't read the files she hadn't, and take whatever punishment they gave her. If that meant life in the sandbox… well she only felt bad for S.H.I.E.L.D as the enemy of Iron Man. Daisy would deserve it.

They left Daisy alone for hours, a tactic she knew was meant to drive her insane. Well it was working. Daisy attempted to put herself in a state of relaxation, but she just couldn't do it. As resigned as she was to admit to what she'd done, she was nervous about what they'd do to her. She really didn't want to spend the rest of her life locked in a windowless cell.

Finally someone opened the door, and Daisy wasn't too surprised to find out it was Coulson. Of course they'd send someone she trusted, someone she liked. Daisy was scared of Natasha. She was amused by Clint. She liked Coulson. The look of disappointment on his face almost broke her.

"How long it took us to figure out is testament to how good you are Daisy, how good an agent you could have been," Coulson sighed sitting down across from her. "Fury wants me to find out if you shared the information with anyone, if you told anyone, including your dad, what was in those files."

Daisy shook her head frantically. "No, I swear I didn't even tell my dad. And I didn't read many, I swear I just read a little bit of Howard Stark's and then my dad and mine and the footnote on mine led me to read about the Hunan 0-8-4 so I read that… and I know it's me because I asked my dad if that was where I'm from but I didn't read anything that wasn't about me and my family I swear. I was joking about knowing where the Sandbox was."

"You shouldn't have read anything," Coulson reminded her and Daisy hung her head. She knew that and was just so curious she fucked everything up. "We need you to call your father. We don't need Iron Man saying we kidnapped his daughter and busting down our doors." Coulson slid her a phone, and Daisy dialed the number the best she could.

"What am I going to tell him?" Daisy asked before hitting dial. "I don't want to accidentally spill S.H.I.E.L.D secrets. I might have screwed myself over but I don't want to screw S.H.I.E.L.D. It was stupid but I didn't do it to hurt you."

Coulson seemed to understand that, hence why he wasn't mad. Still, Daisy knew as a fact that he was disappointed in her and that hurt a hell of a lot more. "Tell him what you did and that you will be given a hearing before a tribunal of S.H.I.E.L.D agents," Coulson replied standing up. He was at the door before he finished speaking. "And I would suggest, as someone who cares about you, that you tell him goodbye, because you'll probably never see him again."

Daisy wanted to cry, and probably would have if she hadn't noticed the chip in the phone case. She had no idea what it did, but suspected that Coulson planted it there for a reason. He'd said he cared about her; maybe he was giving her a chance to escape.

Daisy knew she should face the punishment for what she did, but she also suspected she wouldn't face the punishment for what she did. She'd be in way more trouble than was fair. She'd spend the rest of her life alone.

Daisy couldn't do it. She believed in S.H.I.E.L.D and its intentions, but she couldn't do it. Coulson must have thought that what would happen to Daisy would be wrong or he wouldn't have given her a way to escape. If Coulson thought her running, disappearing, was right, then so did Daisy. But she wouldn't be able to go to her dad. She'd have to disappear if she made it out, and if she got shot… So Daisy, unable to hear his voice one more time knowing she was leaving it no matter what, just wrote up a text.

I will always love you. Thank you for the wonderful life you gave me. Love, Daisy.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, so sorry for yesterday's mix up. I have no idea how that happened. Everything is in proper order now if you want to go check it out.

The chip opened the door, but as Daisy suspected there was a guard right outside. Without giving herself time to think about what a terrible idea it was, Daisy acted and disarmed him, probably breaking his leg while doing so. Then she took the gun and run.

Daisy tucked the gun away and acted like she was supposed to be free. She walked with her eyes down blending in with those who worked at the facility. She knew how to act like a member of S.H.I.E.L.D, and so she did. She made it to the stairway without another incident because of that.

But when she reached the stairs an alarm began to blare and Daisy heard thundering footsteps. She flipped herself over the railing, and hung for dear life as they passed not even noticing her fingertips as they stepped on them. Daisy was fairly certain she had multiple broken fingers, but she sucked in the pain. Natasha had been training Daisy for months to get out of situations just like this. Granted Daisy never figured S.H.I.E.L.D would be the enemy, but it had always been a possibility. There was always the possibility of anyone being the enemy.

Daisy pulled herself back onto the stairs and through the railing, cringing at the searing pain in her hands. She wouldn't even be able to pull the trigger on the gun if she wanted to, but she put it in her hands. They didn't need to know she couldn't and wouldn't pull the trigger. Perhaps they'd be scared.

In all actuality holding the gun probably made Daisy more likely to get shot, but it gave her the sense of security she needed to run down the stairs. On level 3 she finally found a window, albeit a small one, and peered out.

There was nothing underneath but cement, but she would probably be fine. More broken than she already was, but fine. What then though? She could see the patrols around the gate. Maybe she could slip her way into the back of one of the trucks, ride out with them. It was a terrible plan and Natasha would be insulted, but Daisy figured it was as good as any. She'd be injured after the jump; it wasn't like she could just run away.

Daisy was surprised that she didn't even have to buck up the courage to make the jump; she already had it. She slipped through the window, let go of the rail, and fell.

Her ankle cracked on impact, and Daisy stumbled forward. She managed to stay on her feet though, and ducked behind a dumpster before a truck passed. That was when she got the idea. Daisy slipped into the dumpster and began to wait. There were enough half-empty water bottles to tide her over until the garbage truck came, even if it was on a week's rotation. If it didn't come within a week… well hopefully by then they will have assumed she was off site and loosened security.

They emptied Daisy into the garbage truck two days later, or so she thought. Time was hard for her because she kept falling asleep and waking up to the darkness of the dumpster. Still, the point was that they did empty the garbage, and Daisy found her way out of the gate.

She had no idea where she was, but wandered down the road to find out. She found a stick to use as a cane, and limped her way down the road. A couple trucks tried to pick her up, but Daisy didn't let them. One didn't want to leave at first, but Daisy showed him the gun sitting in her pocket. He disappeared down the road after that.

It turned out that the Sandbox, or wherever they brought her to, was in Washington. Daisy wondered if S.H.I.E.L.D had much influence in Canada, and decided that was her best bed. She slept on the side of the road and scrounged through trashcans for food. Every once in a while she'd pass a store with a newspaper in the widow and see her face staring back. Everyone was looking for Daisy Stark. She imagined Pepper and her dad were frantic, and felt terrible for not reaching out to them. She just couldn't though. She couldn't be found. They'd be far more upset if they knew Daisy was locked up in a S.H.I.E.L.D facility than not knowing at all.

For a week Daisy trudged along like that, half dead, completely delirious, but focused on making it to Vancouver. S.H.I.E.L.D would have a harder time finding her there; she knew it. If she could just make it to the city she'd be able to create a fake ID, get a job, live her life. Maybe in a while things would quiet down enough for Daisy to feel safe calling her dad, telling him what happened. Maybe she'd even get to see him again, in a few years. She could hide from S.H.I.E.L.D forever. It had to be possible.

Daisy just wished it wasn't necessary.

She made it into Canada easily. It was the world's longest border, impossible to patrol completely, and not the type anyone cared if you hopped. She made it to Vancouver, and found all she needed to create a new identity. She went with the name Skye Stork, afraid that even keeping her first name could bring trouble. As for the last name… well it was probably too close for comfort but Daisy just couldn't bring herself to forget her family completely.

She even dyed her hair after a run in with the police. Apparently S.H.I.E.L.D got her on a criminal watch list that extended all the way to Canada. She didn't understand why they cared so much. Surely if they'd figured out she read some files they knew what she read. She really didn't know too much she shouldn't have and what she did know was only fair considering it pertained to her. Sure, she'd broken the rules, but why did they care so freaking much about her for a little bit of broken rules?

It clicked in Daisy's mind that they probably didn't care because she broke rules. They cared because she was an 0-8-4. S.H.I.E.L.D always knew where she was. Her whole life S.H.I.E.L.D had been tracking her, keeping an eye on the 0-8-4 so many died for. Now they'd lost her, and apparently it was unacceptable. They wanted her back, and Daisy wasn't letting them get her.

Until she did.

Daisy hid well, really and truly she did, but only because she'd been taught. Of course Natasha would be able to find the little alleyway Daisy was sleeping in. Of course Natasha would be there the night Daisy managed to get herself a job. Of course Natasha would be there in the end.

"You look like Hell," Natasha noted scanning Daisy. "Granted you're better off than Emma. She got out of the building, but only with a bullet in her leg."

What?

Natasha smirked. "Come on Daisy, did you honestly think it took us six months to realize you read those files? They were just a good reason to bring you in. We had to plant drugs in Renee's room she was so clean."

"It was a test." Daisy felt sick. It had all been one huge test. How could it have just been a test? "You're telling me that this was a test! You put my family through Hell worrying about me. You put my face on the cover of every newspaper on the west coast, for a test?"

"Yes." Natasha didn't even seem to realize how ridiculous it was. "And I'm not going to apologize for it. Granted we didn't technically report you missing, your father did, but we did allow him to think you were missing. It could happen. You could be running from everyone because of how much your dad cared. You needed to be prepared."

Daisy really didn't feel prepared, she felt sick. "Give me a damn phone I'm calling my dad," she growled as Natasha led her to a van. "And you better hope you have a good cover story concocted, because I'm a pretty damn public figure."

"And yet you manage to slip through the notice of those who in the proper context would know your face, it's an important skill." Any other time Daisy would have done anything for Natasha's praise, but right now she just wanted to call her dad. "And you can talk to him in person because I'm bringing you home to rest for the weekend."

Fine. It would be easier to explain in person anyway. Plus he'd only be satisfied seeing her alive, not trusting even her voice. Content to be going home, Daisy slouched in her seat, not wanting to talk to Natasha. She understood why the woman did things like this, but Daisy hated it. She hated the games of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"I'm surprised you're not asking the real question," Natasha voiced as they headed down the interstate. Daisy didn't even look up, so Natasha continued. "Have I read your files? The answer is yes, I have. Now you're probably wondering if I only work you so hard because you're an 0-8-4. I didn't read your file until after we met, after I'd recommended you for S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury showed it to me wanting to know if it changed my recommendation, and I told him no. I don't understand how a person can be an 0-8-4, but I understand that you want to help people and are a talented operative. That's why I work you."

Daisy snuggled tighter into the seat, but finally spoke. "Good to know that you put me through Hell because I want to help people. It really makes me want to be a better person."

Natasha turned her eyes away from the road, but neither of them thought for a second she'd crash because she was looking at Daisy. "Helping other people is always Hell. You think what you read about the Red Room was bad, well it wasn't, not for me. It was after Clint recruited me for S.H.I.E.L.D that I knew what it was like to live in Hell. If you're hoping that you're going to feel good while saving people you've dumber than you look."

"I didn't help anyone by being on the run for weeks and worrying my family."

"I don't agree, I think you helped yourself. Now you know you can do it, you can truly survive on your own with anyone, even S.H.I.E.L.D as your enemy. That will help you someday, even if you can't see how now. There comes a time for us all when those we trust and work for is our enemy. We'll either die in S.H.I.E.L.D or running from it. I taught you that the latter is an option and so I consider my work done. Good thing too because you're not going to be able to dance on that ankle for a while."

Daisy wondered if there were any bones in her fingers left to break if she punched Natasha, but decided against it. Natasha was just trying to make Daisy as skilled as she was, and pain was the only way Natasha knew how to make someone stronger.


	24. Chapter 24

Natasha dropped Daisy off at home and left. Tony wouldn't be too friendly if she was there when Daisy explained. Hell, Daisy was going to have to talk her dad out of an anti-S.H.I.E.L.D crusade as it was. He was so not going to be amused by the training exercise. Daisy wasn't amused either, but she understood it. She knew Natasha was just trying to keep them all alive, but still, it had been Hell. And it was Hell to limp her way up to the front door and let herself in.

Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey stood in the living room, and turned when they saw Daisy. Pepper immediately burst into tears, and Daisy joined her. She just wanted to go to bed and cry for a week straight.

"Hey, hey it's okay," Tony whispered pulling Daisy into a tight hug. "I promise it's going to be okay. I'll make whoever did this pay."

Daisy shook her head frantically as he led her to the couch. "No, no it was just a misunderstanding… you have to promise not to get mad."

"I'm not going to be mad at you Daisy, I'm going to be mad at whoever did this to you. Whatever you did that doesn't make this your fault."

But it was. She'd signed up for it when she agreed not to leave Natasha's class when she had the chance. "It's no one's fault. I just… I've been taking a class with Agent Romanoff." It seemed to take a minute for her dad to recognize the name, but it was clear in his eyes when he did. "She's the best agent I've ever met and she wants to keep us alive. She… she planned a training exercise to test our skills against S.H.I.E.L.D… I jumped out a window… I disappeared before they could tell me it was all fake and made it worse for myself. Really it was my own stupidity."

Tony clearly didn't know how to respond to that news, but Pepper just looked horrified. "I should have strangled that woman when I had the chance."

"It's really not Nat's fault." Okay, it was, but she only did it for their sake. Now Daisy knew what it felt like to be an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D. She knew how to respond to it. That could very well save her life someday, it really could. "I was stupid, hurt myself. Not a single agent touched me, I promise." And it was the truth. Only their boots had touched Daisy's very delicate fingers.

"You should be angry with them," Tony finally sighed grabbing his keys. "Yet you're not. Why are you so loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D? Why would you even think about going back after what they did?"

Daisy didn't know. In all honesty she'd been debating whether or not she did want to go back the whole ride from Vancouver. For the first time she'd been really and truly hurt while at the Academy, and it was terrifying. Daisy didn't know if she could face it again.

But at the same time, she needed to go back. Not just for those who died so she could get this far, but for herself. As terrifying as being an agent could be it was also invigorating. Daisy couldn't just go back to life. She couldn't just work for her dad, become CEO someday. That couldn't be her life. She had to be a part of S.H.I.E.L.D.

But she wasn't sure she could go back to being a part of S.H.I.E.L.D by Monday.

Her dad took her to the hospital, where they confirmed she had six broken fingers and a broken ankle. The doctors straightened her up the best they could, and Daisy couldn't help but wonder if the cast would get her out of Ops class for the 6-8 weeks it would take to heal. That would basically bring her to the end of the school year, the end of Ops in general. If she actually had to sit out all that time she'd never participate in class again… it was an odd thought.

Once she was cleared to go Tony drove her home, silent the whole ride. It was only after he picked her up and physically put her in bed that Daisy decided she needed to know what was going through his head. "Tell me what you're thinking."

"I'm thinking I'd like to test out the Iron Legion on that school of yours," Tony admitted sitting down on the edge of the bed. His position was pulling the sheets tight and they twisted Daisy's ankle, but she didn't mention the pain. He'd feel bad, and she didn't want that. "And I'm thinking I should never have let you go in the first place. I'm thinking I shouldn't have hired 'Natalie Rushman' or let Agent Coulson help us with Stane."

"You know it's your huge ego that makes you take responsibility for everything," Daisy teased knowing too much seriousness and he wouldn't listen. "If we hadn't had S.H.I.E.L.D in our lives Obadiah would have killed Pepper for sure, me probably, you as well. Natasha stopped Vanko too, before he could do something terrible at the Expo. And it was S.H.I.E.L.D who got you to get rid of the palladium, I owe them your life."

"Is that why you insist on working for them?" He knew that wasn't why, they both did, so he didn't even wait for a response. "No, it's just because you're too good. You're the one who should be the hero, Daisy, not me."

She smiled at that. Using his suit had been so damn fun, but that wasn't who Daisy was. He was the man of the light, always in the eye of the public. Daisy preferred to be in the shadows, sheilding people from harm before they even knew there was a danger. That was why she'd go back to the Academy. Maybe not that Monday, but certainly in the end.

"When I got your text I was terrified," Tony admitted with a sigh. "A few years ago I would never have imagined I could ever be that scared. Losing you… it would kill me Daisy. I don't ever want to see you limping in here again. If you have to be with S.H.I.E.L.D then please, can't you at least stay out of the field?"

She wished she could promise she'd never get hurt again, but she couldn't. That just wasn't the life she needed to live. The life she needed was full of danger, and triumph, and loss. It was the life of an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, and it was as good as it was painful. "Dad, I need you to promise me that you'll never react like that again. It was bad enough trying to hide from S.H.I.E.L.D, but you panicking, putting my face in newspapers, that just made it more difficult. I need you to promise me that no matter what kind of text you get you'll never tell the press again, and you won't let Pepper either. If something was to go wrong I want to be able to say goodbye, but if you can't promise me it will stay a secret I won't be able to do that."

"I promise," Tony answered, hopefully meaning it. "I won't panic. Please don't ever have to say goodbye again though… I don't want to lose you."

She wanted to promise that he wouldn't, but she couldn't say that. Just like he couldn't promise that one day Iron Man wouldn't face someone just a little bit too strong for him. All they could hope for was that they'd be given the chance to say goodbye. "Night Dad."

"Goodnight Daisy," he replied, getting up to turn off the light. "I love you."


	25. Chapter 25

Tony drove her back to school that Monday, mostly so he could convince her to take more time off. She wanted to go back though. She’d dyed her hair back to its natural color. (Mostly, she couldn’t get it perfect, which was sad.) She’d done the homework she could find for her CS class. She’d stayed up all night trying to rationalize not going back and failed. She couldn’t miss more school, and she needed to be there. She didn’t want it to look like she was quitting just because of one miserable mission.   
So she went back, despite the wonderful excuses her dad was offering. She went back despite Pepper’s fretting and the crutches. She went back because if you don’t get back on the horse right away, there is a high probability that you never will.  
“I’ll be fine,” Daisy promised her dad planting a kiss on his cheek just to freak him out. “Stay safe yourself Mr. Superhero.”  
“Go,” he chuckled and Daisy smirked She’d finally gotten him to approve of her returning to school, if accidentally. “And don’t think I don’t know what you did there.”  
Daisy laughed as she crutched away and back towards her dorm. She couldn’t help but remember that the last time she made the trip she’d been arrested and put through a week of Hell. It was enough to make her pause, but for no more than a moment. She was back, and back she would stay.  
People stared as Daisy made her way to her room, but she didn’t mind. People could think what they wanted; Daisy would still be the only one of them who really knew what it meant to be an agent. Who knew what the price sometimes was. That would help her someday  
When Daisy opened her door, she was toppled over by a hugging Brit. “Oh Daisy I’m so sorry!” Jemma cried helping her injured friend back up. “Fitz and I are just so glad to see you. We were told you were an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D, and the newspapers said you’d been kidnapped!”  
Wow, so even her classmates hadn’t been told the truth yet. No wonder everyone was staring. “It was a training exercise for Agent Romanoff’s class. This way we could be prepared if we ever were to fight S.H.I.E.L.D.”  
“Is that a likely possibility?” Fitz asked probably imagining what he’d do in that case. Daisy knew what he’d do. He’d run to Jemma and do anything to save her. “Why is that something you would train for?”  
Because Natasha knew what it meant to go rouge from the organization that trained you. “It’s just the kind of thing we do. Honestly, I know I look terrible and it sucked, but I feel prepared now, you know? I’ll be able to handle the real job better for it.”  
“So you’ve set on a Field Assignment after this year?”  
Daisy didn’t even know how to answer Jemma’s question. She’d never really considered that she might have an option. “I’ll probably end up with one. You should try to get one as well. The world has plenty of good people in labs, sometimes it needs those good people to actually be out in the bad world.”  
Fitz didn’t look too excited at the prospect of being in the field, but Jemma did. She looked as if all her dreams were coming true. “Well you should get some sleep. You look beat.”  
“I have classes the same as you,” Daisy sighed grabbing her stuff to go to the Coms/Sci-tech Ops class. She wondered if she could get extra credit, but doubted it. No, she’d probably just be docked for not being in class.  
She was, and same in Coms. It didn’t seem to matter to anyone that she hadn’t really been given an option, but Daisy didn’t fight it. Things weren’t fair in the real world, and the Academy was just trying to teach her that.  
The class Daisy was truly scared to go to was Natasha’s though. What state would the others be in? Natasha said Emma had been shot in the leg, was she okay? What about Sherra and Renee? And what did they think of Daisy’s escape? What were they even going to be doing in class when at least half of them were injured?  
Daisy got her answer because of the projector in the room. Natasha, Emma, and Sharra sat silently, not looking up when Daisy entered. “Where’s Renee?”  
“She’s out of the class,” Natasha answered blankly as Daisy crutched over to her seat. “She didn’t even use the chip and try to escape. I’ve already wasted seven months on her, I’m not wasting two more.” Harsh, and a typical thing to hear from Natasha. “If you don’t have a healthy sense of self-preservation there is nothing I can teach you that won’t result in you getting shot.”  
Emma was blushing, but none of them said anything. Daisy had the most broken bones. Emma has a bullet hole. And Sharra, well she was bruised beyond compare. All three of them had been through Hell, and they understood each other better than they always had. Up until that moment they’d never really accepted Daisy, but they most certainly did then.  
“Okay, let’s start with Sharra,” Natasha announced turning on the screen. Daisy watched as images of Sharra returning to her dorm and being taken in for questioning about some stolen guns. She didn’t even wait to get taken to wherever, but attacked the guards. She managed to disarm them all too before she took off running towards the fence. Daisy was impressed by the way she vaulted over the fence, not so much by the way Sharra landed and knocked herself out.   
“Okay, you need to hold the chains from under more,” Natasha pointed out, sounding like a real, bonafide teacher. “Then you’ll get more thrust and land on your feet. You probably could have gotten away completely if you hadn’t fallen.”  
They watched Emma’s clip next. She escaped from the room the same way Daisy had and even made it out of the building without any trouble. It was when she snuck through the fence that the guards caught her with a bullet to the leg.  
“You didn’t have sufficient cover. If you’d gone down few more yards the buildings are arranged so there is a blind spot that it supposed to have a guard but we left off to help you,” Natasha explained. “But that was some good work taking down all those agents.” Emma smiled at the praise, and they all turned to Daisy’s clip expectantly. She was the only one who’d actually made it away and everyone wanted to know how.  
It was weird for Daisy to watch herself. It was even weirder to hear Natasha’s notes. “There is about a 5 cm edge on those stairs you could have held on to if you flipped your hands. Your fingers would have thanked you. As for the window jump there is little you can do there, but a roll could have helped dissipate the energy if you timed it right. I’ll show you once you’re cleared. And I have to say, hiding in the trash was a brilliant idea, we actually did lose you off the cameras until you ended up out of the compound after getting off the truck.”  
They each then offered suggestions and compared notes, but Daisy didn’t pay much attention. She was really understanding what it meant to think like an agent, to think like Black Widow, and she wanted to someday impress Natasha Romanoff again.


	26. Chapter 26

Daisy’s last two months at the Academy went by without incident. She was incredibly sad to leave, but excited to know she’d been assigned to work on Director Fury’s helicarrier. Surely wherever he was had to be interesting, even if for her internship she was technically doing desk work.’  
It hurt like Hell to say by to Fitzsimmons, but Daisy knew it wouldn’t be forever. They could still text and would surely see each other again. It was a small world, and an even smaller organization. They’d be back; Daisy knew it.  
Tony loved Daisy’s progress updates from the helicarrier, because she was incredibly bored. Bored meant safe, which was good for Tony and Pepper, and bed for Daisy. She got tired of tracing phones to locate suspects for cases she wasn’t allowed to know about. She got tired of hacking into computers to track down files she wasn’t supposed to read. (She did read them though, because she was that bored that she didn’t care about getting in trouble again because of stupid security clearances. So she was a level 3, if she was qualified enough to find a document for a level 7 agent she was qualified to read it.  
And that was the issue, qualification. She’d been so overqualified for everything at the Communication’s Academy that she barely even took its curriculum. She knew more about being a Operative than a techie, and it drove her nuts. She wanted to get out and do something, but she couldn’t. For ten months she couldn’t. Ten months she did nothing but make paper airplanes while waiting for another assignment she’d just do in five minutes. It was horrible. It was the job she could have had at Stark Industries, and it was horrible. Daisy was honestly ready to quit when Deputy Director Maria Hill stopped by her computer.  
“Cadet Stark?” Daisy nodded, surprised to be visited by such an important Agent. Then again she still went to get drinks with Clint, Natasha, and Coulson regularly (despite only being 19), so really she shouldn’t have been that shocked. “Director Fury needs you in his office.”  
Okay, that was definitely a new one. Not only was Director Fury asking to speak with Daisy, whom he hadn’t seen since she was 16, but he sent his Deputy Director to get her. That was big. That was very big. It meant Agent Hill told Fury something so big he didn’t want to risk telling a different messenger.   
“You wanted to see me, sir?” Daisy knocked on the door, and Fury opened it wider for her to come in. He was pacing back and forth, a set of photos on his desk. Daisy wasn’t close enough to see them properly, but they looked vaguely like a popsicle. A giant popsicle.  
“Daisy Stark,” Fury greeted. “You’ve grown since we last met.” Not really. Daisy stopped growing at 13, but she’d certainly aged. She could barely remember the fool she’d been when her dad first built the suit and drew Fury to their house. It felt like such a long time ago. Daisy had changed a lot, she’d become an agent, if an incredibly bored and overqualified one. “What do you know about Captain America?”  
Daisy had vivid flashbacks to when her dad used a model of Cap’s S.H.I.E.L.D to level out his machine. “I know the story, why? What do you need from me?”  
“You’re one of the few people in this organization who know about the Avenger’s Initiative Miss Stark.” As far as Daisy knew that had been shut down, but she didn’t say as much. You didn’t fight with Director Fury. “You’re also a Communications Intern with more field experience than half the punks graduating from the Academy this year. And you’re the only living 0-8-4. You’re unique Miss Stark, and that makes you uniquely qualified for a time sensitive mission.”  
She couldn’t help but perk up at the words. Mission? She was actually getting to go on a real mission? “What is it?”  
“Captain America has been found,” Daisy wondered for a moment if he meant Captain America’s body, but realized Fury would have said so if that was the case. “He’s been frozen in ice since the 40’s. Frozen alive.” Captain America was alive? “He hadn’t aged, and when our scientists finish unfreezing him he won’t know that any time has passed. We’re going to need to break it to him slowly. I want you to pretend to be an SSR nurse and be there when he wakes.”  
It didn’t make sense to Daisy why it would be her, but she didn’t question it. Fury could lie all he wanted if it meant Daisy got to do something… and if the thing she was doing happened to involve her meeting Captain ‘freaking’ America, well all the better. “How long until he wakes up?”  
Not very long at all apparently. They outfitted Daisy easily, and she couldn’t help but feel like it was all wrong. She’d read that the bras used to be different, and why did they insist she wear her hair down. “If I’m a nurse it would be up,” Daisy pointed out. She didn’t know that much about the 40’s, but she knew that.  
“Director Fury wanted you to look exactly how you do,” one of the other agents who’d helped Daisy get dressed answered with a shrug. “If he says it’s right then I trust him.”  
That girl was an idiot. Daisy trusted Fury, but she didn’t trust Fury not to lie. There was another game going on there. Hell, there were always games going on in Fury’s head. Daisy didn’t like being a piece, but it was better she than anyone else.  
“You’re going to be unarmed,” the stupid agent continued. “But if he starts to realize something if off press this panic button, okay?”  
Daisy took the button, knowing full well she would be using it. Fury probably wanted Captain Rodgers to know something was off. That was why he had left small things, like Daisy’s hair, all wrong. And as soon as she walked into that room she’d know if she was right.


	27. Chapter 27

"Oh good, you're awake," Daisy greeted trying not to completely fangirl. Her dad was Iron Man she reminded herself. She didn't need to freak because here was the original superhero. She just had to remain calm and play her part. Natasha had taught her to lie, to act, to be an agent. Daisy would be.

Captain America didn't seem to be liking her nice act. "Where am I?"

"You're in a recovery room in New York city," Daisy lied, remembering the stupid script she'd been told to memorize. "You were injured in the crash and were brought here."

He stood, and was quite an intimidating presence. Still, Daisy wasn't worried. He was a good guy, and even if he wasn't the good guy, she could still take care of herself. "Where am I really?"

"In a recovery room, in New York city," Daisy replied, but he obviously wasn't buying it. Good. Daisy would have been disappointed if he did.

"The game. It's from May 1941. I know cause I was there," Steve answere getting up and looming over her. "Now I'm going to ask you again, where am I?"

Daisy hit the panic button, but continued to smile. "Captain Rodgers, you should be in bed. Let the doctor come in and check you out and then I'll prove to you myself it's New York City."

It was a good attempt, but Captain wasn't having any of it. He pushed past her, knocked the arriving agents though the wall, and ran out. Daisy called it in, not the least bit worried. This was Fury's plan; she knew it. He could have picked a baseball game from around the time Cap's plane went down, but he didn't. He picked one from years earlier. Just as he picked the wrong style bra and the wrong hairstyle for Daisy. It was all a test for Captain America, to see if he was really as good as the stories said. And damn if he wasn't.

Fury led Captain America, who now looked truly overwhelmed, back inside, and beckoned Daisy over. "Agent Stark, would you mind debriefing Captain Rodgers?"

"Stark?" Captain perked up at the name. "Are you Howard's wife?"

Apparently the whole 70 years thing still wasn't clicking in his mind. He seemed to not get that that was a whole lot of time. It was not just a few years worth of changes, but a lifetime's.

"Granddaughter," Daisy corrected with a sympathetic smile as she sat down across from Captain America. "I never met my grandfather, but my dad says he talked about you a lot."

"Howard's dead?" Damn it, Daisy was supposed to be making him comfortable with the present, not feeling terrible about most everyone he knew being dad. "What about Peggy?"

"She's alive," Daisy promised. She'd never met the founder of S.H.I.E.L.D, but she knew the woman was still kicking, even if the woman didn't know she was still kicking. "I'm sorry that this happened to you. It's incomprehensible."

Captain Rodgers cracked a smile. "Howard having children isn't. Tell me about your family."

"I'm supposed to be telling you about the present," Daisy laughed. She liked him, a lot, and not just because he was the hero of her childhood.

"Well, I imagine anyone related to Howard Stark holds large influence over the present, so I'm sure you'll find a way to make it relevant."

Well, kind of. Daisy didn't want to brag but her dad was pretty damn important. "My dad's name is Tony. He's… he's a lot like how you remember Howard. Or he used to be, he's calming down, mostly. He's a brilliant inventor, a playboy, philanthropist, slightly insane but in a good way…"

"And he likes woman?"

Daisy rolled her eyes, but nodded. "He's actually in a committed relationship though, so like I said, he's calming down." He certainly didn't throw parties which resulted in fist fights. Sure, he still liked a party, but they were classier, more like formal dinners than anything. He was finally acting his age, if slightly battier. "He's also a superhero I guess I should say. If you look out the window most days you'll see him flying about the city in a giant metal suit. He doesn't have powers like you, but yeah, I guess I should have begun with him being Iron Man."

"Are there a lot of superheroes around?" Daisy thought of Natasha, Clint, her dad, Hell, even Thor. And that giant green one that tore up NYC a while ago? Yeah, there actually were a Hell of a lot of heroes. "You know what, I don't want to know."

Daisy smiled. A hero who was freaked out by heroes. "Look, I don't know how to recap the past 70 years. I'd suggest looking up each decade on Wikipedia…" Cap looked so confused, and Daisy realized he didn't even know about home computers. "Technology is the biggest change. We have lots of small computers." She pulled out her phone. "This is a cell phone, it allows me to do most anything, including search the internet, which is basically a whole bunch of digital books or…" Okay, Daisy had absolutely no idea what she was doing. "I'm sorry, I'm terrible at this. Fury only picked me because I'm related to Howard."

"You're doing fine," Cap assured which made Daisy feel worse. She was supposed to be helping him, not the other way around. "It's just a lot to wrap my mind around. Why don't we start with the history, how did the war end?"

Okay, okay Daisy could work with that. She thought back to her high-school history classes and outlined the end of the war and the decades after it. He seemed personally insulted by the whole premise of the Vietnam war, which amused Daisy. He was even more insulted to discover he was considered a superhero. "It's true!"

"I didn't do anything any other man wouldn't have done," he argued looking flustered. (Which was so very understandable considering) "I just had different opportunities."

Daisy couldn't help but sit forward in her chair so she was far closer to Captain Rodgers than she'd been before. "But that's the point! You were given incredible abilities and used them to save so many people. You destroyed Hydra! You released prisoners! A superhero is just a hero that is given far greater opportunities than the rest of humanity. The war had lots of heroes, but only one superhero, only one Captain America."

"I never asked to be a superhero."

Oh, wow, he was really as good as she'd imagined. "That's why you're so fit to be one. My dad built his suit when he was kidnapped by terrorists. He never wanted to be a superhero, but he became one to survive, and stayed as one to save people. You are the same."

"And are you a superhero too?"

No, Daisy wasn't even a hero. She thought she'd be as part of S.H.I.E.L.D, but that wasn't apparently the reality of life. "Like I said, we can't all be."

"Agent Stark," a woman poked her head into the room, Daisy and Captain Rodgers both. "Director Fury sent me to bring Captain Rodgers to the apartment we've set up him with. You're free to go."

Daisy wasn't surprised to find that she didn't want to go. She liked this man, a lot. He was the stuff of legends and deserved the reputation. "Make sure you show him how to use a computer, show him how Wikipedia works," Daisy suggested standing up. "Here's my number," she scribbled it on a paper. "If you have any questions feel free to call me, I'm never very busy. And I'll take you to meet my dad sometime, if you'd like."

"Thank you Agent Stark," Captain Rodgers smiled taking the paper. "I'm sorry for almost attacking you earlier."

Daisy wanted to say it was the most excitement she'd had all year, but figured the other agent would disapprove. "You can call me Daisy, Captain Rodgers."

"Steve," he answered with a nod. "To any relative of Howard I'm just Steve."


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for forgetting yesterday. I'm sick and have exams. it's not a good combination.

Daisy had gotten the night off to celebrate the opening of Stark Towers. Her dad was flying about, plugging things in while Daisy and Pepper sat on the couch chatting. “So I met Captain America today,” Pepper chuckled surprising Daisy. “He wandered into the tower asking if it belonged to you.”   
Daisy blushed red Captain Rodgers had come looking for her? “Tell me Dad didn’t find out.”  
“You’re 19,” Pepper reminded. “Don’t let you father keep you from dating.”   
“He threatened to show up at any guy’s house in the suit,” Daisy remarked with raised eyebrow “Anyway, it doesn’t matter anyways. I was just the first person he met in this time. And I think he misses Howard and I’m as close as he can get.”  
Pepper nodded with a grin sparkling on her face. “Oh I’m sure that’s all. He said he was going to call you after I showed him how to use the phone.”  
Daisy couldn’t help but smile. Was he actually interested in seeing her again? Why would he be? He was Captain’ freaking’ America, and she was just Iron Man’s daughter. As much as she’d tried to be more she really wasn’t. “Well if he calls I tell you,” As Daisy said it, her phone rang. She thought for a moment that Captain Rodgers had telepathically known they were talking about him and called, but it was Coulson. The man was officially Daisy’s S.O., not that she ever needed anything since she sat at a desk all day. The only reason she had any sort of S.O. was because she needed one to do things like be there when Captain America woke up from his nap. (Was it a ‘cap’ nap? Daisy felt bad for even wondering.)  
“What’s up AC?”  
“I need you to come in.” Daisy didn’t think she’d ever heard Coulson sound so grave. “Loki is back. Agent Barton is compromised, and I need you to go with Natasha to bet the big guy.”  
“I thought my dad wasn’t approved for the Avengers.”  
“Oh no, I’m debriefing your dad. You and Nat have the big, green guy.”  
Hulk? He was an Avenger and Daisy was going with Natasha to get him? She wasn’t a field agent, yet Fury kept sending her out to ret Avengers. Unless… unless that was the point. She met Nat and her dad accidentally, but after that… Why had she been sent to New Mexico? Why had she been the one to debrief Steve? Perhaps Fury was trying to unite these heroes, unite them around her.  
“I’ve got to go,” Daisy told pepper clicking off her phone. “Don’t get too cozy. I think Coulson is heading over to talk to dad.”  
Pepper paled. As much as she liked the S.H.I.E.L.D agents who’d helped Daisy, she knew this couldn’t be good. “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”  
“Oh you know,” Daisy smiled to pretend not to be scared. “It’s just a normal day in the office. There’s only an alien I pissed off mind controlling my friends.”  
\---

“Fury really likes his games, doesn’t he? “ Daisy mused as she and Natasha sped to India.   
The agent smirked. “You realizing that is the first step to getting you off desk duty.”  
Daisy doubted that. Perhaps she’d proven herself capable of being in the field, and yet she wasn’t given a field team. Her dad had probably bribed them so they never would now that Daisy thought about it.  
“I want you to talk to Dr. Banner. Agent Romanoff ordered as they touched down. “I’ll be there to make sure the Other Guy doesn’t show up, but I won’t you to do the talking.  
Daisy was pretty sure that was a bad idea, and 100% sure that she’d do it. If she could unite the Avengers she’d basically be one. Maybe she could really be one…  
The little girl they’d paid brought Bruce Banner to Daisy and Natasha, who sat waiting in silence.  
“You don’t look much older than her,” Bruce noted looking over Daisy.   
Do they start you all too young?”  
Yes. Eighty was too young to start in the world of S.H.I.E.L.D. It was a dangerous, miserable place. Yet it was also a job that had to be done. “She’s not a spy, just a girl who likes to have a little cash.”  
“Who are you?” Banner asked, pacing back and forth. He didn’t give them a chance to respond before continuing. “Are you here to kill me?”  
Daisy felt bad for him. Having powers would be nice, but only if your powers didn’t have a life of their own, and violent tendencies. “No Dr. Banner,” Daisy replied remembering that Nat had told her to take the lead. “We don’t want to hurt you. My name is Daisy Stark, this is Natasha Romanoff. We’re S.H.I.E.L.D agents.”  
Banner scowled, and ran his fingers through his hair. Daisy had never seen someone like so naturally anxious. He was probably always like this, and for good reason. It couldn’t be healthy though. Apparently stress didn’t trigger the Hulk, but it couldn’t be good for Bruce Banner.   
“S.H.I.E.L.D… how did you find me?”  
Daisy didn’t know, and looked to Natasha for an answer. The senior agent still didn’t speak up. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we need your help. The world is in danger and we need you to help save it.”  
“Daisy Stark,” Dr. Banner repeated lingering on her last name. “I may be living in the middle of nowhere to avoid S.H.I.E.L.D, but I’ve heard your name before. If there is really such a great danger why doesn’t Iron Man save it?”  
He would be helping, but he couldn’t do it alone. (Despite what he might like to think.) “Because my dad doesn’t know as much about Gamma radiation as you do.”  
“How do I know I can trust you? How do I know your silent little friend isn’t just going to put me in a cage?”  
Daisy figured Natasha would speak up at that, but she didn’t. Why? Daisy had no idea what game she was paying? Natasha could be just as charming as Daisy, why not speak up? “Natasha isn’t going to put you in a cage. No one is. Look, Dr. Banner, S.H.I.E.L.D is wary of you, it’s true. I’m wary of you myself, but that doesn’t mean you’re not a brilliant scientist. I don’t want the Other Guy to stop you from being what you really are.”  
“And if the Other Guy doesn’t want to be a scientist?”  
Daisy moved close to Dr. Banner, and looked right into his eyes. “I don’t believe you’re a threat anymore than I am. Unknowns can be scary, but that doesn’t make them evil. Please, will you help us?”


	29. Chapter 29

Flying back to the helicarrier with Banner and Romanoff felt odd. Daisy had been working there for months, but it was different now. Now the Avengers would be there to save the world. Hopefully Daisy would have more chances to help. She would not just stay on the sidelines again. She was basically an agent now, she could fight.  
Once they landed, Fury came to talk to Banner, and Daisy went back to her desk. Just as she sat down and spun in her chair, she heard a voice. “Daisy?”  
She turned to see Steve Rodgers heading over to her “Oh, hey. This must be annoying, coming in before you can even get settled into the new time.”  
“No, actually, this is good, fighting feels…normal.” How sad for anyone to be used to war. “Um, tell your mom thanks for showing me how to use a cell phone.”  
Daisy almost corrected that Pepper wasn’t her mom, but figured she shouldn’t lie. “I was surprised that you came around. Was there something you needed?”  
Steve blushed. “No, it was stupid… I just like talking to you. You remind me of someone I used to know.”  
“I I am his granddaughter,” Daisy laughed.   
“No, not Howard, Peggy.”  
Peggy, Peggy Carter? Daisy laughed at the sheer thought of being compared to the hero of a woman and S.H.I.E.L.D Peggy Carter.  
I’m serious,” Steve smiled a bit, and Daisy felt her heart flutter No! No! No! She could not be crushing on Steve Rodgers. You can’t just have a crush on Captain America! “You’re both bold, smart, beautiful…”  
Daisy blushed pink, and then red when Natasha spoke up “Stop flirting with the intern and let her track down Loki.”

“Sorry,” Captain Rodgers back off as it he’d actually been bother Daisy and not making her day “’ll let you get back to work.”  
She did go back to work but couldn’t focus. It wasn’t just Captain Rodgers distracting her. I was the fact that Thor’s brother was causing trouble Clint was being mind controlled. Her dad had yet to show up. Was something wrong? Should she all and make sure he was coming? Would that make him think she was a scared child? Daisy wasn’t scared, but she felt useless. She had every program she knew of searching for Loki, but he wasn’t showing his head. She could find him if anyone could but…  
“He’s heading to Germany, Daisy announced to the Avengers. “Probably because of the Iridium there.” No one asked how she knew that. She was a Stark-they tended to know everything.  
And then the Avengers left and Daisy was back alone at her desk wondering how she ever thought life as a communications agent would be more interesting than begging for an Iron girl suit.

“Daisy Maria Stark.” The Avengers returned victorious, with Loki, Thor, and Daisy’s dad in tow. “I know you’re here. Saying you have a high-flying assignment is very clever considering.”  
Daisy blushed as everyone stared while Tony called to her. They knew he was her dad of course; the days of hiding as Daisy Johnson were long past. Still, no one expected him to call her out the moment he arrived on the helicarrier. They didn’t know him. They didn’t know that that was exactly the kind of thing he did.  
“Yes,” Daisy answered heading over to where her dad was being himself. “Does the great Iron Man need something?”  
“Flower of Midgard!” Thor greeted crushing Daisy in a bro hug. Nat laughed at Daisy’s horror. Tony was even more horrified. Steve looked away embarrassed. “The man of iron is your father! I almost crushed him in battle until the Captain mentioned you.”  
Tony turned to Fury who was watching them casually. “Does my daughter know all of them?”  
“Yes,” the Avengers admitted and Tony glared. Daisy laughed: someone didn’t want to share.  
“Relax Dad,” Daisy patted him on the shoulder. “You’re still my favorite hero.”  
Her dad beamed, and then Daisy remembered her boss was standing there Oops. “Sorry, Director. I’ll get back to work”  
“Let her stay with us,” Tony suggested. “She can help.” Daisy doubted there was much she could do that they couldn’t, but she would be glad not to be stuck at her desk and to be here with the heroes.   
Fury seemed amused b toe proposition, but nodded. “Fine, Agent Stark is in charge. Get to work and find the Tesseract.”  
Bruce and Tony began speaking, and Daisy appeared to be the only one who could keep up. She didn’t pay much attention though. She was looking at the little device her dad had attached to Fury’s computer.   
“And I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”  
Daisy wasn’t really paying attention to the science talk, but she knew enough to keep an ear out for her father’s more offensive comments. “Ignore my father,” Daisy told Dr. Banner. “He’s a raging alcoholic and certifiable idiot.”  
“I don’t mind,” Banner smiled kindly at Daisy. “Let me show you the lab, Mr. Stark. We can get to work finding that cube.”  
Tony looked between his daughter and the other Avengers, shocked that not even Daisy would side with him. He shouldn’t have been shocked. She loved her dad, but she also accepted that he was about as mature as a baby.   
Still, he didn’t object as Daisy led them to the lab. No, he was a sucker for a good lab. Computers and machines made him about as happy as Daisy and Pepper. (But Daisy liked to think he was finally reaching a point where the humans could come first.)  
“If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer Cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops,” Tony suggested as he and Banner babbled about how to find the Tesseract quickly.  
“You know I set H.O.M.E.R. up with J.A.R.V.I.S,” Daisy interjected and everyone stared. “What? I was bored. Anyway if you wanted to you could combine their processing power to speed things up. I could also tap into all S.H.I.E.L.D devices, use them to run it. Granted I could do that with all Stark Phones too, use a fraction of their power for this, but the security would be a nightmare.”  
Tony nodded his approval, and Daisy beamed. She loved succeeding outside her father, but she loved her father appreciating her success even more. “Start with S.H.I.E.L.D. It’s time we found ourselves an alien toy.”


	30. Chapter 30

Daisy could tell her father was getting bored. The program was running, tracing the Tesseract twice as fast as it could have without Daisy's help, but it wasn't immediate. Tony was bored, and it was obvious when he poked Banner.

"What the Hell dad," Daisy physically smacked him before Captain Rodgers could even speak. "No, poking. Honestly you're supposed to be the one teaching me to keep my hands to myself. You honestly make me wonder which of us is the dad and which of us is the kid."

Banner smiled softly, "It's alright, Daisy. I wouldn't be here if I couldn't handle little things like that."

"That's not the point," Daisy wasn't going to let her dad off the hook so easily. She was in charge. She was the agent (almost). He would respect her and not just see her as the awkward teenager who he first met. "You don't push people's buttons for fun, not when people's lives are at stake, okay?" Tony didn't reply, but his eyes said everything. He was shocked that Daisy would speak to him like that, but he understood her. He understood why she was putting him in his place. He didn't like it, but he understood it.

"Are you going to yell at me for the decryption program too, because I know you saw that. By the way, why didn't you rat me out to Fury. It looks like he has you pretty deep in his pocket."

Daisy barely spoke to Director Fury. Most of her interactions were with Coulson, Clint, and Nat. Still, she understood what he was saying. She'd gotten a lot because of her optimal position as peacekeeper. Fury needed her to do things like stop her dad from unleashing the Hulk. "As an agent I wasn't concerned. I encrypted all of S.H.I.E.L.D's files myself and I know you can't get through what I set up."

"Are you really smarter than him?" Captain Rodgers seemed impressed, and Daisy blushed at his words.

"Not smarter probably," she grinned going over to the computer and decrypting the files herself. "But better with computers certainly. Anyway, what were you looking for? Technically I blocked myself out of all these files, but that was more of a 'lead us not into temptation' thing." Tony came round to her side of the computer, but she swiveled more so he couldn't see the screen. "I'm in charge, remember. Tell me what you want and I'll pull it up and if I think it's information you should have I'll share."

Even Steve looked a bit bothered by that assessment. "Who are you to decide what we can and can't know?"

Daisy actually had to think on that for a second. Why should she decide what was shared and what wasn't? There were groups out there that Daisy respected for sharing all information, but she also saw the dangers in that. She knew that there was stuff out there that people were better off not knowing. Things that should they come to light would satisfy curiosity, and get people killed in the process. "I'm the one devoted to being the shield between your world of superheroes and the real world of human beings. And I'm also the only one who can make the call, so it has to fall to me. What do you want to know?"

"Why was I not called in on the Tesseract? It's clean energy like the arc reactor, why wasn't I called in?" For a split second Daisy thought this was about her father's ego and was not going to indulge him, but then she wondered herself. There were whispers in S.H.I.E.L.D about how to fight those with powers. There was a lot of talk about what they'd do if next time a Thor showed up he wasn't so friendly.

Tony thought S.H.I.E.L.D was building weapons, and Daisy searched for the files because she figured he was probably right.

"They're making weapons to fight off an alien invasion or other superhuman threat," Daisy sighed, turning the screen so they could see the guns and aircrafts. "There are dozens of projects, Insight, Phase 2. It would take years to look through all the things S.H.I.E.L.D has come up with to stop people with powers, people like us."

"Us?" Captain Rodgers repeated Daisy's word, looking at her anew. Daisy cursed herself. She hadn't explained the 0-8-4 thing to her father, and didn't plan on telling him, or any of the Avengers.

"You guys, my dad, the Avengers," Daisy deflected flipping through the files. "It looks like phase 2 was specifically designed to use the Tesseract as a power source."

"How do you work for these people," Tony sounded disgusted, and disappointed in Daisy. She found anger bubbling within her. Technically he was working for them as well at the moment! She knew S.H.I.E.L.D could be messed up, but they were trying to do what they could under impossible circumstances.

Daisy didn't get a chance to defend herself though, because she heard Natasha's voice coming from the coms in her ear. "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Daisy, you need to separate him from the other Avengers."

"Dr. Banner, I need you to come with me. We'll resolve this issue later, but for now there is something we need to take care of."

"Something's wrong," Tony realized knowing his daughter well enough to feel her panic despite her calm exterior. "What is more dangerous than S.H.I.E.L.D with weapons to destroy superheroes?"

Superheroes themselves. "Just please come with me Dr. Banner. I'll owe you an explanation later, but for now we need to go. Dad, Captain Rodgers, no fighting. Just eat your blueberries or call Pepper or something, okay?"

"Where are you bringing me?" Dr. Banner fretted as Daisy led him down spiraling hallways. "You rented my cell to Loki."

"If it makes you feel better we also have an EMP to shut down my dad's suit, and enough tranqs to knock even a supersoldier out," Daisy admitted with a shrug. They didn't have any safety precautions for Thor of course, because they had no idea how to stop aliens. Hence why phase 2 was a thing, even if it was one of their more terrible ideas. "I'm bringing you to a basic lodging quarters. You're not a threat, so long as you're away from the others. Loki thinks the whole team is a ticking time bomb, and knowing my dad's in the mix means he's probably right."

Dr. Banner followed silently for a minute, but as they made their way to the more secluded end of the ship, he couldn't help but speak up. "You and your father, do you not get along?"

"We get along fine," Daisy shrugged not sure how to describe it. "He just does stupid things a lot, and we both know it. He usually only gets mad when I call him out on it, but he doesn't hold grudges against me for it. We've only gotten in huge fights once or twice, and not in years." Dr. Banner seemed surprised by that, probably because of how much Daisy had been scolding her father since he showed up. "We'll never be normal, but what we have is nice."

Bruce opened his mouth as if to say something, but found himself, and Daisy flung across the corridor. Something had blown up, that was for sure, and the Other guy didn't seem to like it. Within an instant Daisy could see the bulging green muscles of the Hulk. She's managed to keep the other Avengers from being in the fight, but now she was stuck with him in a crumbling ship, and with no way out.

"Dr. Banner, you need to relax," Daisy attempted to keep her voice steady, and didn't even bother pulling the gun on her side. For one, she'd never shot anything outside Ops class, and two it wasn't like a simple bullet could stop the Hulk. "There is no threat, probably just turbulence." Turbulence that felt surprisingly like an explosion.

It didn't appear that Daisy's calming voice was doing much good. The Hulk was coming out, and Dr. Banner disappeared, engulfed by the monster he hated. "Raaaaar!" the Hulk roared smashing the ground next to Daisy.

"Get out of here!" Daisy called to the mechanics coming to see what was wrong. "I'll be fine, just keep out!"

Fine was probably an exaggeration. The Hulk was raging around her, trying to crush her as well as the ship. Daisy needed to get out, but she also needed to stop the Hulk. How could she though? He was a raging monster that hadn't been taken down by tanks. Nothing could stop the Hulk.

No, she needed to get him out of the ship. Dr. Banner surely wouldn't be hurt, the Hulk couldn't be killed, but everyone on the Helicarrier could be. "Hey big guy," Daisy called and the Hulk raged towards her. Daisy took off in a flash and he lumbered towards her. If it really had been a bomb, then there was a hole in the helicarrier. If there was a hole in the helicarrier… well gravity worked on superheroes.

Daisy led the Hulk down a stairway, which he promptly broke. At the bottom she noticed the weaken beams. If she got the Hulk down there he'd fall right through, but if she was down there she'd fall as well. She'd have to stay on the staircase while the Hulk went down it, and somehow not get run over.

Daisy sang praises to Natasha Romanoff as she held on to the stairway the 'right' way. Her muscles ached as she hung on, but it did the trick. The Hulk bent the stairs and fell straight through the hanger floor. As he did though, the stairs came crashing down on top of Daisy. She found herself hanging from the helicarrier, wind burning her face as she stared at the open sky.

Her leg was trapped under the broken stairway, but that was the least of her problem. Her problem was getting her leg out without falling out the same way the Hulk did. She wouldn't survive like he did.

Pain seared as she pulled the broken bone out balancing herself the best she could. With a final tug, she managed to get it free, and breathed a sigh of relief as she scrambled away from the edge. She had just begun to cry in relief when she heard a sickening crack, and the weakened floor opened up beneath her.


	31. Chapter 31

Flying and falling are no different until you reach the ground, but it felt different to Daisy. She let out a blood curdling scream as she fell from the hanger, down, down, down. She was going to hit the ground and go splat. She was going to die.

"Shh, I got you." Daisy felt cold arms wrap around her, and she caught her breath. "You're fine Daisy. I've got you."

Daisy sobbed into her dad's cold, titanium alloy shoulder. "The Hulk fell and then I…" She looked up, and hated that she couldn't see her dad's face. He was Iron Man saving someone, but she couldn't feel her dad. It broke her heart. "I'm not even old enough to drink."

"You should never have joined S.H.I.E.L.D," Tony cursed lifting his distraught daughter back onto the helicarrier. "I should have stopped you."

They landed back on the helicarrier where the invasion seemed to have come to an end. Daisy had stopped crying, but she still felt like she was falling to her death. She could barely breathe, but spoke anyways. "I wouldn't have let you."

"Will you now?" he asked, pulling off his helmet so Daisy could see his face. She was shocked to discover the streaks of tears on his face. He'd been crying as well. "Please Daisy, quit S.H.I.E.L.D. Work for me and be safe."

It was such a tempting offer. She'd thought her life in S.H.I.E.L.D would be more exciting than working for her dad, that she could make a difference, but she wasn't. She was sitting at a desk all day, bored out of her mind, and doing nothing. Stark Industries was inventing things to change lives. In S.H.I.E.L.D Daisy did nothing. She'd worked so hard and given up any hopes of a normal life. And for what? She hadn't even been good enough to keep the Hulk from destroying the helicarrier. She got him off the plane, true, but she should have been able to do more. She couldn't though. She wasn't making any difference in S.H.I.E.L.D. Daisy didn't belong.

Daisy was so sure of it that she was about to tell her dad she would quit when she heard Fury's voice over the Coms device still resting in her ear. "Agent Coulson is down."

From the moment Daisy met Coulson, she'd known there was something special about him. His suit was cheap and worn. He seemed uncomfortable, unsure, and yet so wholly driven. He knew what he wanted and he worked to achieve it. Daisy remembered how enamored she'd been with the man. Truly he was incredible. Coulson could put up with even Tony; he had to be incredible.

Every time Daisy saw Coulson she was reminded of a comet. He seemed so sure of his choices, his mission. Daisy had wanted more than anything to be that confident herself. She wanted to be sure of something instead of questioning everything as she did. She wanted to be like Coulson.

Natasha was the one to sign off on Daisy's Academy application, it was true, but Natasha wasn't the one to first believe in Daisy. Coulson was. Coulson never treated Daisy like a child, even though she'd been one. He protected her, but he didn't make her feel useless. Coulson had seen the girl she was, and recognized the woman she could be. Daisy had spent the months before she met Coulson working to impress her missing father, but after she met Coulson things changed. Daisy finally did things for herself, to help her become a formidable and independent person. Coulson never said or did anything to catalyze that change in Daisy, and yet he had never-the-less. Meeting Coulson had changed Daisy just as much as meeting her dad had.

And he was dead. They tried to hide it away in a makeshift morgue, but Daisy could make out the body bag from her infirmary bed. It was just another thing that made her want to get far, far away from where she was, but the doctors wouldn't let her. She had a broken leg, and yet they were treating her as if she was about to die, watching her carefully to make sure she was safe. Daisy suspected her father was bribing them to do so, or perhaps they were just scared of what would happen if Iron Man's daughter died suddenly while under their care.

Clint was in a containment box beside Daisy, but he wouldn't look up at her. He'd been mind controlled, and yet somehow still managed to blame himself for Coulson's death. They both knew how much Daisy cared for Coulson, and so Clint couldn't look at Daisy without feeling guilty. She thought that was ridiculous. Surely Clint knew Coulson better than she ever did, Coulson having been Clint and Natasha's handler for a great many years. Daisy should have been expressing her condolences to him, not the other way around.

"You know it's not your fault," Daisy sighed figuring if Clint wasn't going to start the conversation she had to. "Coulson's death, the destruction of the Helicarrier, none of it is your fault."

Clint looked up, his eyes haunted in the way Daisy had seen Natasha and her dad's before. It was the look that reminded Daisy of the fact that she'd been through tons of shit, but they'd been through more.

"Coulson knew the job's dangers," Clint replied, probably trying to make himself feel better as well. "I'm upset because I almost got you killed."

What? Clint was beating himself up because she had a broken leg? Was he ridiculous? People had died. Coulson had died! And he was upset because Daisy's leg was sticking out at an awkward angle? "I'm an agent the same as him. I know the job's dangers too."

Clint laughed at that. "You're not an agent, you're a kid. No security clearance or badge is going to change that. You… you're Lila in fifteen years. Cooper in twelve!" Daisy had no idea who Lila and Cooper were, but Clint seemed horrified at the idea of them having anything close to Daisy's life. "You shouldn't have gotten hurt."

"Why does everyone still think of me as a kid? I'm an adult! I can take care of myself! I can fight. I'm not helpless anymore." Even as Daisy said the words she knew they weren't particularly true. She'd sobbed earlier in the day, and she still always felt so scared and helpless. She wanted everyone to treat her like an adult, like a competent agent, but she wasn't one.

Clint smiled at her childish denial. "You could be fifty and I'll still think of you as a kid. I think we all will. I can't explain it to you Daisy, but that's just the way it is."

Well Daisy found it remarkably annoying, and would have said so too if she hadn't noticed her dad fighting with a doctor down the hall. Whatever they were fighting about must have been resolved, because Tony stalked towards Daisy speaking, "They need to put you under to reset your leg."

Oh great, just what Daisy wanted. "Okay," she caved handing her phone to her dad. "I have it set up to track the Tesseract. You should know where it is soon."

"Even if it finds it I'll be here when you wake up," Tony promised, squeezing his daughter's hand tight. "The world can wait."


	32. Chapter 32

Tony broke his promise, and Daisy was glad for it. When she woke up she was alone in the infirmary and saw a battle raging around Stark Towers on the TV in front of her. There in the midst of it was her dad. An army of aliens destroyed everything in sight, and yet Iron Man fought back with all his strength. The Avengers truly seemed to be winning.

Daisy, despite feeling like shit, sat up to watch the battle unfolding. More than anything she wanted to be out there fighting, helping, but she knew she'd have been no use. She was a good fighter when 100%, but with a broken leg she'd have just been a target. A target that every Avenger would have been working to protect. Daisy being there might very well have gotten one of them killed.

At one point Daisy realized her dad was no longer being shown on camera. Fear crept into her as she wondered what happened. Where was he? Had he gotten hurt and the news was trying to keep the peace by not showing? Was he dead?

The vibrating of Daisy's phone spooked her out of her thoughts. Quickly she snatched it up; it was her dad. "Dad? Dad? Are you okay?"

"Oh thank God you're awake," Tony sounded relieved, which only worried Daisy more. "Daisy, I'm not going to lie to you and I don't have much time so you need to listen. I'm carrying a nuke right now, and I'm about to go right through that hole to space with it."

Daisy's breath caught. He was what? "Dad just throw it! Please I can't lose you!"

"You're not going to lose me," he didn't sound so sure of that, and Daisy felt tears streaming down her face. No! No! No! "Daisy I promise I'll come back to you, but if I didn't… if for some reason I didn't come back someday I need you to know that I love you and that you coming into my life was the best thing to ever happen to me. I never felt loved by my father, but now I can't even imagine him not loving me. I can't imagine a father who didn't love their child so much that he'd… that he'd die for her."

"You can't die," Daisy whispered wondering when he'd go through the hole and lose connection. "Not today not ever. Please. Don't do this."

"I love you Daisy," Tony promised and Daisy finally caught sight of him again on the news, flying right into space. "Remember that and tell Pepper that I…"

The phone cut out and Daisy let out a choking sob. No! He had to come back. Any second he'd come back through the portal and be fine. He had to be fine.

The beam opening the portal shut off, and Daisy cried out. No! Her dad wasn't back yet. They couldn't close it. He just needed a few more seconds!

Just as the portal shut Daisy noticed a streak of red falling through it. He had come back through. He was safe. Her dad had made it. He wasn't dead… this time.

Daisy was invited to go out for dinner with the Avengers, and she readily took up the offer. Something told her they would have just eaten in silence if not for her, and she couldn't possibly have that.

Afterwards Daisy returned with her dad to the now-destroyed Stark tower. She couldn't help but laugh that only the A survived, and suspected that her dad probably had some new ideas about what that A could stand for. Daisy knew she most certainly did.

"What was it you were going to have me tell Pepper?" Daisy finally asked as the two of them sat on the half-broken couch in the dark. "When you were going through the portal you told me to tell Pepper something. What was it?"

Daisy couldn't see her dad's face, but she could imagine the pained look on it. "I wanted you to tell her that I love her. Daisy, maybe it makes me a horrible father, but I wanted to call her just as much as I wanted to call you."

"That doesn't make you a horrible dad," Daisy promised fumbling in the dark to find and hold his hand. "It only means that she's as much your family as I am. I feel the same way about her. Hell, I call her mom half the time. You should tell Pepper though, that you love her, that you see her as family."

Tony laughed, but didn't sound too amused. "She'd ask why I didn't just propose and make it official."

Pepper would never do that. She understood that Tony wasn't comfortable with the idea of commitment. Yet now that he had mentioned it… Daisy had never imagined her father marrying Pepper either, but what if he did?

"I think you should. Marry Pepper that is. She's the only person who can put up with you for the rest of your lives. She's already your rock, and I know she loves you the same as you love her. You should propose to her. I would love to see you too married."

Daisy could make out a faint smile on her dad's face. "I wouldn't do that to her. Pepper wants kids, I'm sure of it. And I… I'm not exactly the father type."

Daisy laughed at loud at that. "You realize you just said that to your daughter."

"I didn't mean," Tony sounded guilty. "I'm not saying…"

"I know what you're saying," Daisy saved him, stifling her laughter so not to embarrass him more. "You're saying you wouldn't know what to do with a baby. To be honest I don't think babies are part of Pepper's plan, but even if they were I think you'd be a great father. And I, for one, am talking out of experience."

"What did I do to deserve you?" Tony asked planting a soft kiss on his daughter's temple.

Daisy smiled bright, "Does this mean you're going to do it? Is Pepper actually going to be my mom?"

"Like you said, you're both my family. I may as well make it official. Thank you Daisy, this is another thing I don't think I ever would have done without you."

"What else are daughters for?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this is it, the end. I'm very sad to see it over, but I'm glad as well. It's been a little crazy month and a half. 79K in a month and a half? That's insane! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. There is a sequel. It's all plotted out on my computer... I just need to write it. I'm writing a star wars fic at the moment which is kind of time sensitive so I need to finish that before I can write the sequel. I promise you will have a sequel though, and probably before Civil War comes out. Also, I sorta need Civil War to write the second half of the sequel, so it will probably be around May you bet the sequel. Don't hate me! I only ever made you wait more than 24 hours twice in the past month and a half. You can now wait a few months for the next fic. It's less time than we spend waiting between movies.
> 
> Thank you again for reading and reviewing. This is the fourth most reviewed fic in the whole category, and that's just unfathomable for me. So thank you all so much for reading. I'll miss your reviews as I try to get the sequel done. Thanks again, and don't kill me for the wait!


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